Every Now and Then
by Desha
Summary: COMPLETE! Semisequel to In A Quiet Town. Reno, Yuffie, and company are looking for a missing science team... Will they come back alive, or will they vanish, as well?
1. The New Midgar

Every Now and Then  
by Desha  
  
Note: This is meant to be a sequel of sorts to "In a Quiet Town", and thus it will contain a few references to that story... I do, however, like to have stories that can stand on their own, so you probably won't have to have read it to understand anything more than a few smartass remarks in this one. So that being said, to all the people who (much to my surprise) emailed me and asked for a sequel, enjoy!  
  
*~*~*~*~*  
  
Chapter 1: A New Midgar  
  
It was the warmest winter he'd ever seen. At a time when there should have been a thick blanket of snow covering everything in sight, and a bitterly cold wind whipping in from the north... there were instead grassy fields, and birds singing sweetly in the fresh air. It was a perfect spring afternoon in the dead of winter.  
  
"One thing I'll say about Meteor... That damn rock sure improved the weather around here," said Reno, leaning against the side of the car, pretending to look like he wished he were helping Yuffie to change the flat tire.  
  
"Yeah... whatever..." the ninja grumbled as she shoved the spare into place, "Ya know, you *could* help, instead of just standing there like the totally useless pain in the butt you are..."  
  
Reno smirked and looked out into the distance toward Midgar. Of course, it wasn't his Midgar... the one he'd grown up in... That had been trashed by Sephiroth and his giant rock from outer space. And what Meteor hadn't demolished had been left standing precariously, a memorial to those lost at the hand of a madman. The Midgar Reno was looking at not was nothing more than a speck in the afternoon sunlight. No towering buildings, no massive glass windows to reflect the golden hue of the sun... it had started out as a camp for the survivors who'd crawled and clawed their way out of the wreckage, and slowly it had morphed into a town - a town that was growing a little more every day. And, like the old Midgar, Shin-Ra was in charge. Of course, since there were no actual Shin-Ra's left, it was in name only. Matthew Reeve was the president of the company now, and but popular vote, no less! Apparently the goody-two-shoes had made quite a few friends as Head of Urban Development... But at any rate, Shin-Ra, Inc. was gradually gaining back some of the power it once had, despite the changes Reeve had made to its operations. Mako energy was pretty much off-limits, and teams had been assigned to dismantle the old reactors one by one. Shin-Ra's army had been suspended, in Midgar at least, for the time being, and, quite possibly, indefinitely... partly because Reeve didn't care for the idea of a company controlling a military force (and Reno thought him far too much an idealist for that...) and partly because there simply wasn't enough money to support such a vast army just now. The troops in Junon still remained, but they were focused on keeping the peace and aiding the people of Midgar for the moment.  
  
Shin-Ra had lost nearly everything. True, Junon was still very much intact and functional, but most of the company's assets had been incorporated into its headquarters in Midgar. And with the Mako reactors being stripped for scrap, Shin-Ra had lost it's primary product... which meant that stock wasn't exactly a hot commodity anymore.  
  
But those were Reeve's problems, not Reno's... and the new president seemed to be taking it all in stride. As long as he got paid, Reno wasn't especially interested in the how's or why's of Reeve's decision making strategies.  
  
"Aren't you done yet, brat?" he asked, flashing Yuffie his patented grin.  
  
"If *you* think you can do this any faster, then be my guest!" she replied.  
  
"Well... I would, but my ribs are still a little tender from a certain overweight ninja-brat landing on them back in Duraman... Wouldn't wanna aggravate 'em any more than I have to..."  
  
"I'll aggravate 'em for ya..." the ninja muttered under her breath. And to think... she'd actually come to the conclusion that he *wasn't* the complete asshole constantly he acted like. And who was he calling overweight!?  
  
Reno shrugged, and took the opportunity to light up. His body was craving nicotine, and he didn't care if the ninja-brat did start yelling at him again. He took a long drag from the cigarette, savoring it and closing his eyes in mild contentment.  
  
"Eww... Grossness!"  
  
"Hey!" Reno cried as nimble fingers plucked the cigarette away.  
  
"How many times do I have to tell you, those things are gross... and besides, they aren't healthy," Yuffie stated quite matter-of-factly, dropping the offending object to the ground and grinding it to a pulp beneath her boot.  
  
"Yeah? Well, neither is having to put up with you," the Turk replied irritably.  
  
"Ah, quite pouting an let's go already," said Yuffie as she climbed into the driver's seat.  
  
"Move over, Yuffie... I already told you, you're not driving."  
  
*~*~*~*~*  
  
It wasn't long before the unlikely pair had reached their destination. Reno had sent Reeve a message as soon as they'd reached Junon informing him of recent events, but there were still a few details that needed to be filled in... and so he left Yuffie behind to lug the rather large quantity of materia she'd stashed in the trunk of his car to wherever she was planning on hiding it.  
  
Reno made his way through the streets of Midgar. It was an overcrowded little place, littered with tents and makeshift shelters. Cooking fires burned at intervals along his path, and around them were gathered families and friends and even complete strangers. It reminded him of the slums of the old Midgar, on a very basic level, but here there was not so much utter hopelessness. Most of these people were simply grateful to be alive, despite their losses. Besides which, he knew these conditions were only temporary. Everyday, new buildings were going up to house these people, courtesy of Shin-Ra, Inc. Eventually, these hobbles would be replaced by real homes... provided that the few funds Shin-Ra had left held out.  
  
It was an odd contrast, seeing half the town shiny and new, and the other half little more than a refugee camp. Reno made his way to the center of it all... a small, rather plain-looking structure, almost like a bunker, two stories above the ground, and, he knew, another two below. This was the new headquarters of Shin-Ra, Inc. Reeve could have easily moved it all to Junon, but the man had a need to be in the middle of it all... to watch Midgar rebuild itself and help where he could.  
  
Reno just shrugged to himself and pushed open the door. He breezed past the guards with hardly a glance, and made his way to the president's office on the second floor.  
  
Reeve's secretary sat at her desk, busy with some odd bit of paperwork or another, but when she caught sight of the redhead, she stopped. Reno grinned at her and sauntered over, leaning coolly on the edge of the desk.  
  
She was a pretty little thing... petite and perhaps just a bit too skinny, with short, raven hair and hazel eyes. Her name was Hope... Just a little too fitting for someone who worked so closely with Reeve. She eagerly returned his smile, as she always did when Reno stopped by.  
  
"Hey... Ya miss me?" he asked. She giggled softly before regaining her composure.  
  
"President Reeve is waiting for you..." she replied, batting her eyelashes at him.  
  
"Oh, he is, huh... Well, let'im wait..." Reno said, edging ever so slightly closer to her, "How about you come away with me, and we can... get to know one another..."  
  
"Ah, get a room..." a voice behind him said. Reno turned, grin still plastered on his face.  
  
"Hey Spike... What's up? I know *you* missed me..." said Reno.  
  
"Yeah... Almost as much as I miss Sephiroth," he replied coldly.  
  
"I'm hurt, Strife... And here I thought we'd become such good friends..." Reno replied with a wink.  
  
"Where's Yuffie?" Cloud Strife asked, trying very hard not to be baited by the Turk. Reno shrugged.  
  
"Oh her... I left her in a ditch somewhere."  
  
Cloud's eyes narrowed and he grabbed the Turk by the collar of his shirt.  
  
"Heh... Easy, Strife... Man, you have no sense of humor at all."  
  
"So where is she, Turk?" Cloud asked again, his patience wearing thin.  
  
"Hey, I brought her back. She went her way, and I went mine. I never asked to baby-sit the brat, ya know," Reno replied, removing Cloud's hand from the general vicinity of his throat, "Last time I saw her she was drooling over her pile of materia... again."  
  
The secretary, who'd been all but forgotten by the two men, took the opportunity to interject.  
  
"I don't mean to interrupt, but President Reeve *is* waiting for you two..."  
  
"Well..." Reno replied, never taking his eyes off his one-time enemy, "We certainly can't keep President Reeve waiting, now can we, Strife?"  
  
Cloud said nothing... simply pushed past the Turk and walked through the doors and into Reeve's office.  
  
*~*~*~*~*  
  
Note: And thus ends Chapter 1... I didn't get quite as much actual plot established as I wanted, but I decided that I'd post this and see what kinds of reviews/suggestions/flames (all welcome, btw) I get. So if you want Chapter 2, review!!! Pretty please??? (And don't worry... Yuffie'll be back in the picture pretty soon... *grin*) 


	2. Welcome Back, Now Get to Work

Every Now and Then  
by Desha  
  
Note: Dangit, I meant to post this three days ago, but got bogged down with classes... Anyway, *on her knees* please, please, please review... It keeps me motivated! :)  
  
*~*~*~*~*  
  
Chapter 2: Welcome Back, Now get to Work  
  
"..."  
  
"Rude, why don't you stop tormenting yourself and just *talk* to her?" Elena asked.  
  
"..."  
  
"You've had every opportunity, you know... There's no excuse."  
  
"..."  
  
"So what if it doesn't work out? At least then you'll *know* and you can stop pining over her!"  
  
"..."  
  
"Alright, that's it... I'm done talking to you about this," said Elena, and she started to walk away. The stoic Turk paid little attention to her departure... until he noticed where she was headed...  
  
*~*~*~*~*  
  
"There..." Yuffie said to herself, as she shoved the large canvas sack she'd brought back from the town of Duraman under her bed. Her new materia would be safe enough there for now. She was quite proud of herself... it was the most materia she'd ever collected at one time... and she hadn't even had to steal it! Her victory high was interrupted, however, by a growl from her stomach.  
  
"Huh... Next stop, food!" she said as she bounded out the door.  
  
Yuffie's quarters were in a small building on the newly constructed side of Midgar. Walking from one side of the city to the other was like entering a different world... and it scared her sometimes, though she would never have admitted that. She eventually reached the low building that lay at the heart of it all and paused for a moment to look at the collection of tents that were just a much a part of the city as the buildings like the one she was staying in.  
  
Yuffie turned and moved toward the mass of canopies near the new Shin-Ra HQ, the huddle of canvas rooftops propped up on poles to shelter the rows of long tables. It was collectively known as the Kitchen, and it was where all of the food in Midgar was prepared and distributed. She didn't hesitated before jumping into the line that was quickly forming.  
  
*~*~*~*~*  
  
"Um... Excuse me, Tifa..."  
  
"I'm a little busy right now," the martial artist replied, cringing as she recognized the voice that addressed her.  
  
"I know... It's just that I need to ask you something... See, Rude over there has this..."  
  
"Really, Elena, I'm busy," she snapped, cutting the Turk off. She stirred the pot of soup that simmered on the stove, as if to prove her point. Whatever it was the Turk had to say, she really didn't want to hear it. Maybe it was petty of her, but she couldn't stand them... not any of them. It was all she could do to remain civil towards the former assassins... spies... murderers... any number of terms fit. She worked with them when she had to, she discussed what needed to be discussed for the good of Midgar with them when she had to... but she didn't like them, nor did she trust them. As far as Tifa was concerned, the present state of things was just as much the fault of the Turks as it was Rufus Shin-Ra's, or Hojo's, of even Sephiroth's. They'd all played their parts. And the Turks had proven themselves especially heartless, in her opinion... Reno in particular.  
  
"Just answer one question for me, and I'll let you get back to work," the blond replied, obviously miffed at being so abruptly dismissed.  
  
"Fine..." Tifa sighed. Anything to get rid of the woman. She didn't bother to turn and face her, "What is it?"  
  
"I just wanna know if you would ever consider go... Mmmph!"  
  
Tifa turned around just in time to see Rude dragging Elena away, his hand clapped firmly over her mouth as the female Turk struggled futiley in his strong grasp.  
  
"Weirdness... What was than all about?" a new voice asked. Tifa turned again.  
  
"Yuffie!"  
  
The ninja grinned at her friend.  
  
"Miss me?" she replied, taking a bite of her apple... Fifteen minutes in line for a piece of fruit, for Leviathan's sake...  
  
"Yuffie, you disappear for three weeks, then we suddenly find out you're off on some mission with... Reno! I can't believe you go off alone with that... that... ugh... Monster is too nice a name for him!"  
  
"Come on Tif... Give the guy a break. Sure he can be kind of an ass sometimes, but he's not a monster... Really."  
  
'A break?' Tifa thought, 'I'd *like* to break his neck'  
  
*~*~*~*~*  
  
"Mmm! Mmph mu mmm mm!  
  
Rude at last released his hold on Elena.  
  
"What's the big idea? I was just trying to help!" she yelled.  
  
"Don't," Rude replied.  
  
"All you have to do it go up to her and say 'Tifa, I like you'... What's so hard about that? Sure she might throw you halfway across Midgar, but at least she would know how you feel..."  
  
She couldn't help but feel more than a little hypocritical saying that... after all, she'd spent gods only knew how many weeks and months fawning over Tseng without ever really telling him how she felt about him. But she wasn't about to watch Rude make the same mistake she did...  
  
"..."  
  
*~*~*~*~*  
  
"So that's pretty much it. All taken care of, no loose ends, bad guys're dead," Reno finished. It hadn't taken long to recount his - and Yuffie's - little adventure in Duraman. Reeve had listened attentively, nodding from time to time. Cloud just rolled his eyes at intervals, giving Reno the distinct impression that he felt that he could have done a much better job, given the chance.  
  
"Feel up to another assignment?" Reeve asked.  
  
"You're the boss," Reno answered, with a slight shrug, despite the little voice in his mind that answered with a resounding "No!" and brought forth fantasies of vacation time in Costa del Sol.  
  
"Good." He pulled a map out of his desk, "I'm sending you here." Reeve tapped a spot to the north of Midgar that seemed to be nothing but ocean.  
  
"Okay... I'll bite. What's up there?" asked Reno. Even Cloud moved a bit closer to get a better look.  
  
"Six years ago, Shin-Ra set up a research laboratory on an island near the northern continent. There was a massive mako fountain there... bigger than anyone had ever seen before... and originally, a reactor was to be built on a neighboring island. But the islands are part of a volcanic chain, and too unstable for a reactor."  
  
"But not to unstable for one of Hojo's experiments," Cloud interjected, with obvious distaste.  
  
"This wasn't one of Hojo's projects, actually. But at any rate, the area is prone to earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tsunami... not to mention, it seems to be a location particularly favored by red dragons. And since mako reactors have quite a lot of delicate machinery..."  
  
"So what you're saying is that they didn't want to build a reactor where it'd probably go up in flames before they got their money's worth," Reno cut in.  
  
"More or less," Reeve replied, "But the president still wanted to make use of the island."  
  
"And a few scientists were expendable, right?" Cloud commented, dryly.  
  
"The team was made up a volunteers... It was their idea. They petitioned Shin-Ra for funding to study the fountain in the hopes of finding a way of harnessing mako energy without actually extracting it from the planet."  
  
"Why'd Shin-Ra agree to spend money on something like that? The company wasn't exactly known for it's planet-friendly ideals..." said Cloud.  
  
"Heh... I can tell ya that," Reno replied, "Mako reactors're expensive... to build 'em, to keep 'em running, and to protect 'em... They were trying to save a few gil."  
  
"That's about the size of it," Reeve confirmed, "They thought that if a less invasive method of extracting mako energy could be found, it would be more cost effective. Most people think that the reactors worked like a siphon... once it gets started, the mako comes out on its own, and the reactors just regulate it. It's not that easy, though. The reactors have to force it out of the planet at every step of the process... which means the machinery needs almost constant repairs, most of which was automated. But the systems that repair the reactors are powered by mako, which..."  
  
"Which eats into the profits," Reno finished for him.  
  
"So why not just build the reactors on top of natural mako fountains? Wouldn't that make things easier?" asked Cloud.  
  
"That was tried, but the fountains dried up every time when they were tapped directly. That's why Shin-Ra board of executives decided to fund the research. It the scientists could figure out how a mako fountain works, maybe they could also find an easier, cheaper method of extracting energy," Reeve replied.  
  
"So you want me to go up there and do what?" asked Reno, "Spy on 'em? Shut 'em down? Make them quietly disappear?"  
  
Cloud glared at the Turk's almost light-hearted suggestion that he was being sent in to murder a group of scientists.  
  
"Part of their agreement in exchange for funding was to send a detailed monthly report to Shin-Ra, informing the board of their progress. They stopped sending the reports about two months before the Meteor incident, but Shin-Ra had more immediate problems to deal with at the time."  
  
"Like what?" asked Cloud.  
  
"Oh, I dunno... Like rebels trying to turn the population of Midgar against the company... like terrorist groups planting explosives in mako reactors, maybe?" Reno replied with a scowl, "A few nut-jobs killing workers and destroying equipment, just cuz they didn't like the way we did business..."  
  
"Yeah? And who's the psycho that dropped a giant slab of metal onto the hundreds of innocent people living under it?!" Cloud yelled back, rising from his seat, and he could have sworn he actually saw the redhead cringe for a moment.  
  
"It was closer to thousands," Reno growled, "And back off!"  
  
"That's enough," Reeve cut in, before the two men could come to blows, "As I was going to say... I want the two of you to work together on this."  
  
Both men went suddenly silent, and looked at Reeve as though he'd suddenly sprouted a second head.  
  
"Me? Work with him!?" the chorused.  
  
"Decide who's going with you and be ready to leave in the morning," Reeve replied. Neither of them said another word as they left the office.  
  
"I just hope they don't all end up killing each other," Reeve sighed when they were gone. But they were all on the same side now... it was time they started acting like it.  
  
*~*~*~*~*  
  
Coming soon... Chapter 3: Traveling with Turks 


	3. Traveling with Turks

Every Now and Then  
by Desha  
  
*~*~*~*~*  
Chapter 3: Traveling with Turks  
  
Early the following morning, they were racing across the deep blue of the northern sea, saddled on the backs of ocean-going chocobos. Reno had a great view of Cloud's back, as the self-proclaimed "leader" sped out in front, distancing himself from the three Turks who lingered at the back of the group. To Cloud's left was Tifa, the spiky little freak's first choice in traveling companions... Reno glared at her from behind. That woman never failed to let him know just how much she hated him. Granted, she had reason, but that didn't mean that Reno *enjoyed* being so rudely awakened at three in the morning by a shower of ice-cold swamp water... His silk pajamas were never going to be quite the same, he was sure. He wondered just how early Tifa'd had to get up to make it to the southern swamp and back, anyway... Though he had to admit, it was a stunt he wished he'd thought of himself... He'd been a bit lax with Elena of late.  
  
Yuffie, too, rode ahead of him... and as much as he might have liked to, he couldn't complain too much about her presence on this trip. Yuffie was better than that walking sack of hostility, Barret Wallace, any day... and besides which, after the time they'd spent together, he'd gotten used to having her around. He should have known that she would worm her way into the party the moment she heard the mention of a mako fountain... especially the biggest mako fountain anyone had ever seen.  
  
It had taken awhile, but he and Cloud had managed to come to an agreement as to who would accompany them. After much discussion, and negotiation... and scathing insults against one anothers parentage... they had agreed to two allies each to accompany them. Naturally, Rude and Elena were Reno's first and only choices... Cloud had immediately taken Tifa into the group, and then agonized over his second choice, before finally giving in to Yuffie's non-stop whining. Reno had to admit, the ninja-brat was good at getting her own way. Cloud had originally wanted to call the Highwind and its foul-mouthed pilot off its supply run from Junon to Midgar.  
  
Of course, Cloud had assumed the lead the moment they'd left Reeve's office, throwing Reno into a subordinate position without so much as consulting him. Not that Reno was one to take orders, anyway... not from someone he didn't trust not to get him killed, at least... but, still... it irked him. In the end, he'd decided to let soldier-boy have his way. If nothing else, it might be interesting to watch him try and order around the Turks.  
  
"H-how much farther?" Elena suddenly called out to Reno. He took his gaze off of Cloud's back, his mind snapping back into the present, and looked over at his fellow Turk, snickering as he caught a glimpse of the white-knuckled grip she had on her chocobo's reins.  
  
"What's the matter Elena? Sit back and enjoy the ride!" he laughed. It was a little cruel of him... He knew the poor girl couldn't swim a stroke. When he'd informed her of how they would be traveling, her face had taken on the palest shade of white he'd ever seen painted on human flesh.  
  
"How much farther?" she repeated, louder than before.  
  
"Hell, just don't fall in and you'll be fine," he said, fighting back another laugh, and her purposefully urged his chocobo into the path of hers. Elena's chocobo darted sharply to the right to avoid a collision and warked indignantly at being cut off so abruptly. The Turk perched on its back bit back a squeal and wrapped her arms around the bird's neck.  
  
"... If you strangle it, you'll both sink," Rude observed, and Reno turned his head just in time to see Elena's face blanch.  
  
"Come on 'Lena... Don't act so weak," he called over to her.  
  
*~*~*~*~*  
  
"Why does it take six people to check on a few scientists?" asked Tifa.  
  
"It doesn't... But I don't trust Reno as far as I can throw him... and neither do you," Cloud replied, "I wanted someone to watch my back, so he decided he wanted the same. Somehow we ended up agreeing on six people."  
  
Yuffie hung back a bit, half-listening as their conversation turned more to Turk-bashing than serious discussion, and half-watching the Turks themselves. Elena looked nervous to say the least, and she wondered why. She also wondered why the woman was willing to take so much abuse from the other two. It seemed that every time Yuffie saw them, one of them - actually, it was usually Reno - was teasing her, or mocking her, or belittling her.  
  
"Jackass," she muttered to herself as Reno cut in front of Elena, nearly causing a collision, "I know you can be a nice guy when you want to... So why don't you?  
  
"You say something, Yuffie?" Cloud called back to her.  
  
"Uh... Shouldn't we be there by now?" she quickly covered.  
  
"Yeah... In fact, I'm pretty sure that's it up ahead," he replied, pointing north. A low shadow rose from the water.  
  
*~*~*~*~*  
  
Her muscles were just beginning to ached from being relentlessly locked in the same position for... how long had they been riding, anyway? An hour? Two? Three? But she couldn't bring herself to shift her position on the creature's back. She dared a quickly glance down at the blue-gray blur that swept past the blue chocobo's feet. Elena couldn't imagine how the bird had ever come to possess such a unique ability, but right now, her feathered friend was all that was between her and a watery grave... so she held herself motionless in the saddle. All she really wanted was to be back on solid ground again.  
  
Shoot-outs she could handle... Espionage, kidnapping, violent enemies at every turn... That was all part of her career. But out here, surrounded by nothing but the merciless waters that stretched out for miles in every direction like an endless blanket of blue... Here, she was terrified.  
  
And it sure as hell didn't help that Reno seemed to be enjoying that fact. He caught her eye as he glanced back at her again, and he flashed her that infuriating grin of his. It was the kind of thing that made you unsure as to whether you wanted to kiss the son of a bitch, or kill him... Or both. She quickly shook that thought from her head.  
  
"Land, ho!" Reno crowed at the top of his lungs, startling Elena out of her reverie.  
  
'Thank Holy,' she thought. She heaved a sigh of relief as the tiny silhouettes of a small group of islands came into view.  
  
*~*~*~*~*  
  
A wide expanse of beach stretched out before them, and beyond that, the tall skeletons of barren trees arched up from the ground like looming sentinels. From the center of the island, smoke rose into the cold, gray sky from the crater of a volcano.  
  
"Welcome to Hell, Reno muttered, taking in the desolate sight. The wind blew across the island from the north, bringing with it the chilly reminder of just how close they were to the perpetually snow-covered northern continent. The acrid smell of sulfur was carried in faint wisps along the shore. Dry, brittle plants dotted the landscape, and farther inland, rare spots of green stood out from the mass of brown.  
  
"Hell or not, at least it's dry land," Elena piped up.  
  
"This place gives me the creeps," said Yuffie, "What's with all the dying plants?"  
  
"Maybe it's the volcano..." Tifa replied. She gazed up at the sloping sides of the cone-shaped volcano, at the smoke that belied its seemingly peaceful presence here... and at the hazy, reddish-brown figure that glided briefly out from the gray, before disappearing behind the mountain.  
  
"Did anyone else just see that?" asked Tifa, pulling her gaze away from the sky.  
  
"..." Rude was looking toward the volcano as well.  
  
"Uh... Maaaaaybe we should go find those science guys now..." said Yuffie.  
  
*~*~*~*~*  
  
No one spoke as they made their way inland on foot, the chocobos having refused to take one step off the beach, and rearing back when Cloud tried to coax them along by the reins. It was as if the birds saw something that their riders did not, and their skiddishness only served to spur everyone's apprehension about the island even farther.  
  
Yuffie looked around at their surroundings, bleak as they were, searching for some small bit of color. Something was very wrong here... It felt almost unreal... and it wasn't just the dying plant-life. It was almost maddening that she couldn't put her finger on exactly what it was that bothered her.  
  
"You guys here that?" Reno asked suddenly, and everyone stopped, listening. The moment it took before someone answered seemed an eternity.  
  
"I don't hear anything," Cloud said at last.  
  
"Exactly," the Turk replied.  
  
"..."  
  
"Reno, this is no time for jokes," Elena said, rolling her eyes.  
  
"So who's joking? I'm serious... When was the last time you heard absolutely nothing? There are no birds... no other animals... can't even hear the wind or the waves since we left the beach."  
  
"That's it! That's what's been bothering me!" said Yuffie, "Gawd... That is soooo weird..."  
  
The others scanned the area. Reno was right... the whole place was unnaturally still.  
  
"Who would actually want to stay in a place like this?" Tifa wondered aloud, "Cloud, how much farther is this research station?"  
  
She turned to face him, but Cloud's mind was elsewhere, his eyes affixed to a spot still farther along their path.  
  
"Cloud?"  
  
"Yo, Spike..." Reno said, waving a hand in front of his "leader's" face.  
  
"Huh?" Cloud responded, "What..."  
  
"How much farther to the research station?" the redhead asked, repeating Tifa's question.  
  
"Cloud? Are you alright?" Tifa asked.  
  
"Oh... Uh, yeah... Fine..." he said, absently scratching the back of his head, "Just thought I saw something..."  
  
He decided not to mention that the something he'd thought he'd seen had been crouched beside a small patch of flowers that were no longer there.  
  
"So...?" Reno prodded. Cloud narrowed his eyes at the Turk.  
  
"So what?" he snapped.  
  
"So, how much farther?" Reno defensively replied.  
  
*~*~*~*~*  
  
In a shadowy corridor, a lone figure shuffled through the darkness. It began to climb a flight of stairs that creaked in protest under its weight. It seemed to remember a time when there was light here... but light was fleeting in this place now... Perhaps It was mistaken.  
  
It paused at the top of the stairs, hesitating. It didn't really want to go any farther... It wanted to return to the warm embrace of the light, below the dark hallways and corridors. Why was it up here, then?  
  
Oh yes... It remembered now. It was supposed to write. Was it really time to write again already? All was dark and still beyond to stairs, lonely and abandoned. It could feel the emptiness that saturated the air. More stairs. Up and up. There were doors... It knew which one to open.  
  
The figure entered a small room, as It always did when it was time to write. It found the heavy wooden desk in the corner. The pale sun shown through a dirty window, shedding its light on a well-worn spiral notebook. It sat down to write. In jagged, almost child-like handwriting, It scrawled, "The light wants..." and then It paused, thinking. Did It really know what the light wanted? Yes, It decided, It did, "... more..." It turned to the man sitting in a chair in the corner.  
  
"Uhhhhhh..." It moaned... Send it. It was the man's job to send it where it was supposed to be sent. The man answered It with a wide toothy grin... That's all he ever seemed to do anymore... It didn't care. Its job was done. It went back to the light.  
  
*~*~*~*~*  
  
"Hey! Strife, do have even the faintest idea where the hell you're going?!" Reno yelled as he disentangled himself from the dry, thorn-covered vines that snaked their way back and forth across the party's path. They wrapped themselves around the trunk of trees, as if to strangle whatever life remained. They wound their way through the brush and bushes that must once have been lush and green. And they snagged Reno's jacket, his pant legs... they captured locks of his hair and tugged painfully when the Turk tried to pull away.  
  
The others didn't seem to be faring much better than he, except perhaps for Cloud, who pushed through it all with the stubbornness that Reno was slowly becoming accustomed to. The red-haired Turk cursed under his breath as a line of thorns tore at the exposed skin at the back of his neck. He raised a hand to the injured area, and drew it back stained with crimson.  
  
"Strife!" he yelled again. He was fast getting sick of constantly being ignored. He had half a mind to go up to the guy and slug him just for the hell of it... But instead, he opted to help Elena untangle herself.  
  
"Owww! Stop, stop, stop!" the blond cried, when Reno tried to unravel the vines.  
  
"This would be a lot easier it you'd just hold still!"  
  
"Ow! Stop pulling!"  
  
"Elena, quit struggling..."  
  
"No! Not like that... OW! Reno!"  
  
"Heh... Just like pullin' off a band-aid..."  
  
"Yeah... Except band-aids don't rip out a fistful of hair!"  
  
"Wimp," Reno teased, and turned to continue after the others, who'd already moved out of sight, "Fistful of hair, my ass... Come on, before Strife leaves us behind."  
  
When they finally got clear of the vicious foliage, the two Turks found Yuffie waiting for them.  
  
"Lemme guess... Strife didn't want to stick around and see if we made it out of his little shortcut alive or not," Reno grumbled.  
  
"You know, you could *try* to get along with Cloud..." the ninja replied, "Anyways, come on... They're waiting for us up ahead."  
  
*~*~*~*~*  
  
Note: And so ends Chapter 3... Like it? Hate it? Deeply confused and troubled by that whole "It" writing in the dark thing? (I was having a bit of an abstract moment there...) Review, and maybe I'll make things a little more clear in Chapter 4! :) 


	4. In the Shadows

Every Now and Then  
by Desha  
  
*~*~*~*~*  
  
Chapter 4: In the Shadows  
  
"What's taking them so long?" Cloud asked impatiently. They'd paused at the crest of a small rise to wait for Yuffie after she'd gone back to look for the two Turks who hadn't yet emerged from the tangle of vines that seemed to, at one time, have covered most of the island. The brown remnants of the tenacious plants could be seen everywhere, though they'd been particularly thick in the area the party had just passed through. It had been a massive briar growing in a pass between the weathered cliffs that rose up just inland from the beach. Indeed, the topography of the island was anything but continuous. As they neared the volcano, the elevation rose just as they would have expected, and yet now, they found themselves looking down a steep embankment at the large wooden building that was nestled against the base of the smoking mountain. It was almost as if the volcano itself were sitting in a gigantic bowl. All around the base, dark grey rock stretched out in a hemispherical valley.  
  
"So that's it, huh? Not much to look at..."  
  
Cloud turned around to see Reno. How was it that he hadn't heard the Turk approaching? He could hear the other two, now. Elena and Yuffie were certainly making enough noise to raise the dead as they trampled through the underbrush...  
  
"What were you expecting? A seventy story skyscraper?" replied Cloud, "Did you even bother to look at the file Reeve gave us?"  
  
"So where's this huge mako fountain??" Yuffie asked eagerly as she and Elena reached the others.  
  
"Down there... About three hundred meters underground in an old lava tube. The building over there is sitting right on top of it," Reno replied before Cloud had a chance to say anything. He looked at Cloud, "Yeah, I skimmed through it..."  
  
"We're going down here. Let's move," Cloud grumbled, casting an icy glare at the Turk.   
  
"You sure that's the best idea, Strife?" Reno asked, looking down at the steep slope and the gravely layer of rock that covered it.  
  
"This is probably the best spot we're going to find... We're going," Cloud stubbornly replied. Reno raised a hand to his brow in a mock-salute.  
  
"Yes, sir!" he shouted, making no attempt to wipe the annoyed look off of his face. Elena rolled her eyes. Rude just shook his head slightly, and nudged Reno toward the embankment before the redhead could start a fight.  
  
Yuffie was already on her way down, so Reno shrugged and followed her. The rocks underfoot were loose and crumbling, and every few steps, he found a spot where he tended to slide farther then he actually climbed... impatient as he was, he decided to slow his pace, as did Yuffie. Reno cringed as he watched her lose her footing and slide for a long moment before catching herself and continuing on. Several rocks rolled and bounced down the slope, toward him.  
  
"Hey! Watch it up there!" he called up to Tifa, who was still a good distance above him, as the rocks that her climbing had knocked loose rained down on him. She either didn't hear him, or chose to ignore him. A rock bounced off his shoulder. 'Of course, there's always the possibility she's doin' it on purpose...' he thought. He glanced down and saw that Yuffie had already made it to the bottom. Just another five or six meters and he'd be down himself.  
  
Another shower of rocks came down... But this time, it was accompanied by a startled cry, and Reno had just enough time to look up and catch a glance of Tifa's well-defined figure falling toward him before the two climbers collided. Reno yelped as Tifa's knee crashed into his shoulder, and his already dubious footing was lost. He was vaguely aware of the sound of the others calling out in alarm. The rocky cliff grated against his skin as they tumbled down as one, Reno taking the brunt of the abuse. Tifa's hand was clamped firmly to his upper arm, and whether it was out of panic or simply to keep them from separating, he wasn't sure.  
  
Finally, it stopped... They hit the bottom of the embankment, rolling out onto the valley floor. The wind knocked out of him, Reno pressed his cheek against the cool stone of the valley. Tifa's weight was sprawled across his back, and he heard her groan softly as she stirred. Reno winced as she scrambled to get off of him, and the rush of hurried footsteps and more mini-rockslides could be heard as Yuffie ran towards them and the others hastened their progress downward.  
  
"Tifa! Reno!" Yuffie cried, kneeling down beside him. He would have answered her had it not been for the uncomfortable tightness in his chest that was only gradually beginning to subside as he forced himself to take deeper and deeper breaths. Moving in any way was, for the moment, not high on his list of priorities.  
  
'Gonna feel that in the morning,' he thought to himself.  
  
"Reno, are you alright?" Yuffie asked, "R-Reno?"  
  
"Come on, Turk... Get up..." said Tifa... Was that an actual note of concern he heard in her voice?  
  
"Reno! Oh no..." Elena's voice chimed in, "Reno? Oh, please don't be dead!"  
  
"..." Rude's boot nudged him gently in the ribs.  
  
"Tifa?! Are you okay?" Cloud asked. He'd been the last to start down into the valley, and consequently the last to arrive.  
  
"She's fine... She landed on top of *me*," Reno groaned at last, "God, I hate my life..."  
  
A pair of strong hands lifted him into a sitting position. Rude peered at him through his shades, appraising the scrapes and soon-to-be bruises that littered Reno's pale flesh.  
  
"..."  
  
"Yeah, yeah... I'm fine," Reno said as he clambered to his feet, "Don't go gettin' all worried about me, Rude..."  
  
Rude shrugged in response. The redhead staggered slightly, and Rude quickly steadied him. Cloud was too busy checking Tifa for injuries to notice. Fortunately, she'd gotten off with hardly a scratch.  
  
"Don't scare us like that!" Yuffie cried, and she punched Reno in the shoulder... naturally, the same shoulder Tifa's knee had already connected with.  
  
"Ow! Hey! Aren't I in enough pain already?" he pouted, cradling the injury. Cloud was already headed toward the research center, apparently satisfied that Tifa wasn't seriously hurt.  
  
"Asshole..." Reno muttered under his breath, watching him go. He turned to Reno and Elena, "Well? What are you two waiting for... a written invitation? Let's go."  
  
The other two Turks looked briefly at each other before obeying Reno's order. Yuffie hesitated a moment, assuring herself that Reno wasn't going to keel over, before following suit.  
  
"Hey," said Reno, quickening his pace to catch up with Tifa, and catching her by the arm.  
  
"What?" she replied somewhat suspiciously.  
  
"So, uh... You alright?"  
  
*~*~*~*~*  
  
"So, uh... You alright?"  
  
If the question itself didn't catch her off-guard, the fact that she could find none of the Turk's usual sarcasm in it did. Emerald green eyes watched her, awaiting an answer. She was silent for a moment.  
  
"Why would you care?" she said at last, pulling away from him. She shook her head. This was the heartless bastard who'd destroyed more lives than she could count... He'd single-handedly killed scores of families living beneath the Sector 7 plate, and gods only knew how many others...  
  
"Oh, sorry... I forgot. I'm a Turk. I'm not allowed to care about anything, right?" Reno said with a scowl, "Christ... Forget I asked."  
  
He turned his back to her and hurried to rejoin the others who'd moved on ahead, and Tifa could help but think he'd sounded almost... hurt.  
  
"Come on Tif... Give the guy a break. Sure he can be a total creep sometimes, but he's not all bad," Yuffie's words from the previous day came back to her with persistent clarity, but she quickly pushed them aside. She wasn't ready to believe them.  
  
*~*~*~*~*  
  
The wooden floor cracked and groaned with the added weight of the new arrivals.  
  
"No power... It doesn't look like anyone's been here in a long time," said Cloud, testing the light switch on the wall. The building was dark, and the air had a stale quality to it. They stood in a relatively large room... probably it had been used as a lounge or reading room at some point, as the dust covered sofa and chair seemed to indicate. A tattered, moth-eaten carpet covered the floor, and a number of books were strewn about the room. Elena picked up a few.  
  
"Thermodynamic Reactions of Mako Source-levels... Natural Mako: An Analysis of Geochemical Effects... Geostructural Consequences of Shallow Mako Intrusion... Well, at least we know we're in the right place," she said.  
  
"Yeah... But where are the people who're supposed to be here?" asked Yuffie.  
  
"That's what we're here to find out," Cloud replied, "I think the best thing to do now is split up and search this place from top to bottom."  
  
"Heh... For once I agree with ya, Strife," said Reno. He was absently flipping through one of the books Elena had handed to him, "Yo, Rude... You, me, and 'Lena can go check out whatever they got upstairs."  
  
Reno headed for the staircase that was tucked into a corner of the lounge. The other two Turks weren't far behind.  
  
"Hey! Where do you think you're going?!" Cloud shouted. Reno stopped in mid-stride.  
  
"Where did I just *say* I was going?" he replied without turning around.  
  
"Listen, Turk... I'm in charge here..."  
  
"Yeah? Says who?" said Reno, turning on his heel and cutting off whatever else Cloud had been about to say, "And while we're on the subject, if you want my opinion..."  
  
"I don't," Cloud growled. Reno ignored him.  
  
"You're so-called leadership is gonna get us all killed. You marched us into those vines not knowing what might be in there... You decided to go down the steepest part of that cliff without even looking for a better route... The hero crap is gettin' old, Strife."  
  
Rude and Elena subtly back off to a safe distance.  
  
"And your *attitude* is "gettin' old", Turk," Cloud replied, narrowing his eyes.  
  
"Get used to it, you chocobo-headed freak," Reno hissed, "Who the *hell* does your hair anyway?"  
  
Cloud shoved him backwards, but Reno was ready for it, stepping back away from the force that was directed at him, and remained unfazed.  
  
"That the best you can do?" he taunted.  
  
"What is he doing?" Elena asked quietly. Rude shrugged.  
  
"Cloud, we don't have time for this," Yuffie interjected, hoping to break things up before they went any farther.  
  
"Come on Strife... Let's see what you got!" said Reno. Cloud moved in to take a swing at him, but the Turk sidestepped. Cloud's momentum carried him forward, stumbling, but easily regained his balance. But just as he was about to take a second swing, the floor beneath his feet creaked and shifted, unable to support him. Cloud yelped in surprise as he fell through, the rotting floor giving way and all but disintegrating where he stood. Cloud grabbed for the edge of the newly-formed hole, but the wood splintered and broke away, leaving him in a freefall toward the next floor down.  
  
"Cloud!"  
  
He wasn't sure if it was Tifa's voice, or Yuffie's, or both... not that it particularly mattered as he crashed into the floorboards below.  
  
*~*~*~*~*  
  
More... more, more...  
  
It could feel the light growing more insistent... more demanding. It wanted to bring the light more. The light pulsated all around It, warm and comforting, and It could feel others within the light, as well. They all wanted the same thing It did... To bring to light more, so that the light would be pleased with them, and give them what they needed. They had failed to bring the ones who flew to the light. Each time they had tried, the creatures had taken to the air... The light had not been pleased. The small ones were easy to bring to the light, because they couldn't fly yet... but they were so difficult to find... It would have to leave the light for a very long time to bring them here.  
  
More, more, MORE...  
  
It would find more of the small ones for the light.  
  
*~*~*~*~*  
  
"Cloud! Can you hear me?" Tifa called down through the hole in the floor.  
  
"I'm alright..." a voice echoed up from below.  
  
"Nice going, Reno," Yuffie said, smacking him in the back of the head.  
  
"Me?! What'd I do?" the Turk replied, "It's not like I shoved him down there myself... and quit hitting me!"  
  
"Well, if you hadn't started arguing with him..."  
  
"Look... No big deal. Tifa an' Rude can go find the stairs to the basement and get Strife while the rest of us take a look around up here."  
  
"Forget it," Tifa interjected, "I'll go find a way to get Cloud out of there myself. Yuffie, keep an eye on these three until we get back!"  
  
With that, she stormed off, heading down one of the darkened corridors.  
  
"Rude, follow her and make sure she doesn't fall through the floor like Strife did, and get herself killed or something," Reno sighed as soon as Tifa was out of earshot. Rude nodded silently and started after her, "Alright... Elena, you check out the rest of this floor - and for Holy's sake be careful where you step. Me and Yuffie'll take a look around upstairs and meet you back here in say... twenty minutes?"  
  
*~*~*~*~*  
  
"Ew, ew, ew... Grossness! Get it off!" Yuffie cried, flailing her arms in a desperate attempt to rid herself of the sticky netting that clung to her tenaciously.  
  
"Yuff... It's just a spiderweb," Reno snickered as he watched her rather amusing little dance. The ninja made a point of glowering at him as she picked the web out of her hair.  
  
"Ew..." she moaned.  
  
"Are you done yet, Princess?" he asked, leaning casually against a wall.  
  
"Hmph... You'd do the same thing if you'd walked into that thing!" Yuffie replied.  
  
"No way," he smirked. Yuffie flung the last bit of webbing to the floor.  
  
"*Now* are you done?" he asked. Yuffie nodded, "Good... Let's see what else is up here."  
  
He straightened and headed for the door that led back to the hallway they'd entered from. Apparently, this floor was the research team's sleeping quarters. The first room they'd investigated looked as though it hadn't seen any visitors in awhile... except for one very busy spider.  
  
"Um... Reno?"  
  
He was headed for the next room, with Yuffie trailing behind.  
  
"R-Reno..."  
  
"Look, if you want an apology for laughin' at you, you're not gonna get one, 'kay?"  
  
"Reno!" she shouted.  
  
"What?"  
  
"There's something crawling on your back!"  
  
"Huh?" He twisted his head as far as he could, trying to get a halfway decent view of whatever Yuffie was talking about, catching just the briefest glance of a black lump skittering away from his shoulder and down his back.  
  
"AHHH! Get it off, get it off, get it OFF!!!"  
  
*~*~*~*~*  
  
"Elena..."  
  
She stopped, looking all around her, but seeing no one in the dingy light that came through the grime-covered windows.  
  
"H-hello? Who's there?"  
  
"Elena..." The voice was soft - barely above a whisper - and the haunting sound sent a chill racing down her spine.  
  
"Reno, if this is one of your stupid jokes..."  
  
"Elena... I'm waiting for you..."  
  
That was definitely not Reno's voice. She reached into her jacket, drawing her gun.  
  
"Where are you?" she called out.  
  
"This way, Elena... I'm here..."  
  
The voice seemed to be coming from the next room. Elena held her gun ready to fire at a moment's notice and moved cautiously towards the door, reaching out and turning the doorknob as quietly as possible. In one swift movement, she kicked the door wide open, gun aimed into the room as she scanned the shadows for possible targets. What her eyes at last came to rest on, however, made her drop her weapon in shock. It clattered to the floor, the sound echoing in the large room, and her eyes widened in shock.  
  
"I've been waiting, Elena... We were supposed to have dinner."  
  
"Tseng?... I... You... But... You... You're... dead, sir..." she stammered. And yet, there he was, standing in the center of the room as though nothing had ever happened. His blue Turk's uniform was neatly pressed, as always. Not a hair was out of place. He stood straight and tall, the barest hint of a smile on his lips.  
  
"Come over here, Elena..." he said, and she had no doubt in her mind that the deep, rich voice that spoke was indeed Tseng's. She didn't care that it was impossible... that his being here didn't make the least bit of sense. He was alive! She started towards him.  
  
"Tseng..."  
  
The floor creaked loudly, and she paused, suddenly unsure of her footing, looking down at the wood. Surely if it could support Tseng's weight, it could hold her...  
  
"Come to me, Elena..."  
  
She took a cautious step forward. The floorboards groaned and bowed in protest. It couldn't hold... It couldn't possibly hold.  
  
"Come to me..."  
  
She took another step forward. This time, the board cracked. Her foot slipped through, and the floor began to cave in from the center of the room to where she stood. Elena lunged back the way she'd come from with a scream, clawing her way back from the collapsing floor in a desperate attempt to avoid the fall.  
  
For a moment, she didn't think she'd make it, but suddenly she was safe. She turned back to look, eyes wide and breathing heavily. Tseng still stood there, just as he had before... but beneath his feet was nothing but a gaping hole, leading down into darkness. He simply seemed to hover there, unmoved and heedless of what had just happened. Elena stared at him as he slowly faded away and then vanished altogether... and then she grabbed her gun from the floor, and ran...  
  
*~*~*~*~*  
  
"Reno... I'm pretty sure it's dead, now," said Yuffie.  
  
"Not." Stomp. "Until." Stomp. "I" Stomp. "Say it is," he replied, grinding it to a pulp beneath his boot.  
  
"Geez, Reno... It was just a spider."  
  
"Shut up," he muttered, trying to ignore her girlish giggles as he walked into the next room, "Hmm... Looks like someone's been in here recently..."  
  
He knelt down to examine more closely the footprints in the dust that covered the floor.  
  
"How recently?" asked Yuffie. Reno shrugged and looked around the room.  
  
"Well... More recently than that guy..."  
  
"Huh?" Yuffie followed the Turk's gaze and took an involuntary step back as she saw what he was talking about...  
  
The yellowing bones of a human skeleton were seated on a chair in one corner of the room. It grinned back at her as if it had a secret to tell, but wouldn't share with anyone.  
  
"This probably isn't a *good* sign, is it?..." she said, staring at it. Reno had moved off toward the other side of the room.  
  
"Doubt it..." he replied, flipping through the notebook he'd picked up from the desk by the window.  
  
"What's that?" Yuffie asked.  
  
"Looks like one of the scientist's journals," he replied, "Or maybe some kind of log."  
  
"Well? What's it say?!"  
  
Suddenly, a rumbling crash shook the building, echoing up from below and reverberating through the walls.  
  
"What was that?!" Yuffie cried.  
  
"I dunno... But I'm sure Elena is somehow involved..." Reno responded, taking off at a sprint toward the stairs.  
  
*~*~*~*~*  
  
"Elena?!" Reno called as her reached the first floor, racing in the direction he'd seen Elena take when they'd separated. Yuffie wasn't far behind.  
  
A blue-clad figure emerged from the shadows, eyes turned away from the direction in which it was running. It took Reno a moment to recognize the figure as the very person he was looking for, and he skidded to a halt... Elena did not.  
  
She collided with him, sending them both to the ground in a tangle of arms and legs.  
  
"Why do women keep landing on me?!" Reno shouted as he lifted the other Turk off of himself.  
  
"Reno! Reno... You won't believe... I... I... It was... I saw... I saw..."  
  
"Whoa... Come on, 'Lena... Spit it out already..." Reno said, climbing to his feet and offering a hand to Elena.  
  
"I saw Tseng!" she cried at last.  
  
*~*~*~*~*  
  
Note: Stupid physics class... This would have been up last week if I'd had the time to type it... Thank goodness for spring break :) Well, that's chapter 4. Review and nag me to finish my homework faster so I can get moving on chapter 5!   
  
*Reno chews through his gag*  
  
Reno: For the love of me, review! She's holding me hostage until this story is finished! Review!! *Desha clamps a hand over Reno's mouth* Mmmmmph! Mmmm!!!! *is huggled into submission* 


	5. Deeper into the Shadows

Every Now and Then  
by Desha 

*~*~*~*~* 

Author's note: Yes, as promised, it has been revived! Hopefully at least some of you will come back and continue reading this story... At any rate, here's chapter five. Enjoy! 

*~*~*~*~* 

Chapter 5: Deeper into the Shadows 

"..." 

He kept his distance from the woman as she moved through the darkness with determination. He would simply watch over her from the shadows, rather than make his presence known... she would be less likely to try to lose him in the maze of hallways if she didn't know he was there. Not to mention less likely to throw him through a wall. He wondered briefly if she could actually manage such a feat, before deciding that he preferred not to risk finding out first hand. Yes, it would be easier to protect her if he didn't let her see him. 

That, at least, was Rude's main excuse. In the darkness of the lower level, he could just barely make out that graceful form that moved on just up ahead in search of Cloud, but in his mind he could clearly see every detail. The way she walked... sure-footed and with an air of such confidence that he couldn't help but admire. She was not some dependent doll of a woman... and yet she kept about her an aura of alluring femininity that held him entranced. 

She was calling out to Strife now, in that determined voice that had become increasingly familiar to Rude, and he followed Tifa a bit more closely now, as she moved steadily away from the little bit of light from the stairwell. 

*~*~*~*~* 

"Cloud?!" she called, "Cloud... Can you hear me?" 

The only answer she received was the sound of her own voice echoing back from the empty tiled hallways. It was hard to see in the dim light, and every little sound she made seemed strangely loud to her ears. Her footsteps, even her breathing seemed too loud. 

"Cloud, where are you?!" 

She pushed aside a spiderweb, wondering, not for the first time, if she was even headed toward the place where Cloud had fallen. Suddenly, a soft glimmer of light just ahead caught her eye. 

"Cloud?" 

Tifa hurried toward the light, following its glow into a large chamber. 

"Cloud!" 

He stood, unresponsive to her voice, at the far end of the room, staring up at the source of the illumination. It was... well, Tifa could only describe it as a column. A column of light, silvery and breathtakingly beautiful, a radiating entity in the darkness. It pulsed rhythmically, like a beating heart, glowing intensely, then fading, then becoming bright again. The rhythm was hypnotically calming... eerily so. She felt herself being drawn toward it, and she slowly began to move forward... until she was shaken from her trance by Cloud's voice. 

He was speaking softly - too softly for her to make out the words - to... the light? Indeed, he seemed to be having a conversation with it, pausing at intervals as though it was giving a response. Tifa, however could hear nothing. 

"Cloud?" 

When he didn't reply... didn't so much as seem to notice her presence in the room... she began to move toward him again. And the closer she got, the harder it was to keep her mind from wondering back to the strange column of light. 

There was a low groan from the wooden beams directly overhead, but it was quickly forgotten. She wanted to get closer to the light. No... That was wrong. She shook her head. Cloud. She wanted to get closer to Cloud. 

A loud rumble that grew louder with each second brought her back to reality a second time, and a shrill scream from high above her alerted her to sudden danger, though dazed as she was, she couldn't seem to make out what was happening. She thought to look up, toward the sound itself, just in time to see the ceiling crumbling... falling down on her. 

A figure from the shadows seemed to fly at her, and Tifa felt herself lifted off her feet. The rumble turned to an ear-splitting crash, and a cloud of dust erupted from the debris that hit the floor as the ceiling collapsed. Tifa was thrown to the ground in a controlled fall, a heavy weight landing on top of her, shielding her from the splintered wood that rained down from above. She closed her eyes as the dust it raised choked her... blinded her... and then it stopped. A moment later, someone was guiding her to her feet again, guiding her away, back to the safety of the corridor she'd entered from. Coughing, and spitting out mouthfuls of dust with nearly every breath, she hurried to keep up with her savior. She could hear whoever it was coughing as well. 

At last they stopped, and she dared to open her eyes, blinking away the painful bits of dust that stung at them. She looked around, her gaze finally coming to rest on the imposing figure that standing over her in the darkness, and she took a step back in alarm. It took her a moment, but as the dim light glinted dully off the dark glass that hid his eyes, at last she recognized him. 

"Rude?" she gasped in surprise, the stoic, silent Turk being the last person she'd expected to see. "I... You... You... saved me..." 

"..." 

Another thought suddenly clicked into place in her mind, taking the place of utter shock. 

"Oh god... Cloud!" 

She rushed past the Turk, back into through the door and into the room, clambering over debris, tossing some of it aside. Behind her, she could hear Rude following her lead. 

"Cloud, where are you?!" she cried, "Answer me!" 

*~*~*~*~* 

"What are you talking about, Elena?" Reno scoffed, "Tseng is dead. You know that as well as I do." 

"I... I know, but... But it was him, Reno! I swear, it was Tseng!" 

"You're seein' things, 'Lena..." Reno replied, though his tone had softened a bit. Of the three remaining Turks, Elena had taken Tseng's death far harder than the others. 

"No... I'm not!" Elena protested. 

"Hey, Reno... She might be right... Listen to this," said Yuffie, who had been skimming over the first few pages of the notebook they had found upstairs... 

*~*~*~*~* 

To: Energy Research Committee, Shinra Power Company, Midgar  
From: Dr. Kionae Umeshi, Project Head, Kihl Island  
Re: Mako Fountain Study, Week 10 

Preliminary data shows this site to contain the largest and most productive known Mako fountain south of the Northern Crater. Uncontaminated deposits of crystalline Mako have been dated to range from approximately 200 million years in age in the oldest areas, to 1 year or less in the active vent. The local volcanic activity seems to be directly relates to the flow of energy from the fountain, though a cause for this has not been determined. Volcanism and seismic events in the vicinity of the island seem to coincide with periods of decreased activity in the fountain, and visa versa. We have not yet found a noticeable cycle or pattern for the observed fluctuations in activity, suggesting that they are either random and chaotic, or that said pattern occurs over a larger time scale than we have been able to observe. Of note however, is that these fluctuations have been steadily increasing in frequency since construction of the main research facility began 8 weeks ago. 

The island itself is fairly typical, with the exception of the fountain. Geologic studies have determined a tholeiitic basaltic composition for the bulk of the island, with alkalic eruptions from the volcano, suggesting that the island has entered the late Alkalic Stage (of note is a small, early Alkalic Stage seamount to the southeast, which indicates that our island is slowly moving roughly northeast, away from the magmatic plume of the local hot spot that formed it). It is not known at this time whether or not this natural migration will affect the fountain at some future date, though given the magnitude of the geologic time scale, it will likely not be of any concern to our research. 

More detailed findings will be relayed to this committee when the facility is fully functional. 

-end of report- 

*~*~*~*~* 

Personal Log: Dr. Kionae Umeshi, Project Head, Kihl Island  
Date: Week 10 

I find myself behaving much more cautiously in the place than is normal for me. Perhaps it is the population of red dragons that nest near the volcano's crater that makes me wary of roaming too far from our camp. Still, I can't shake the nagging feeling that something is not quite right with this place, and I will feel much safer when the facility has been completed. 

Construction has fallen nearly two weeks behind schedule at this point. Accidents have plagued the workers since we arrived. Everything from dragon attacks to equipment failures... Two days ago a man died. It was a horrible sight. But what disturbs me more is that no one who witnessed it could give a clear account of what happened. The man, a machinery operator, was found... Dear god, it looked as though he'd been ripped apart. I don't think I will ever entirely rid my mind of that image. It appeared that he was caught by the backhoe, yet no one could say with any certainty what had happened. It was as though the entire crew that had been on duty had been distracted by something, but couldn't remember what it was that had distracted them. 

Rumors have been moving through the ranks ever since the accident. They are saying the island is haunted, the island is cursed. I will admit, the drab, depressing nature of the island certainly lends itself to the idea, but of course that is absurd. We will find a rational explanation soon enough, I'm sure. I just hope that we find it before any more accidents can occur. Could it have something to do with the huge amount of materia and Mako energy here? Effects of prolonged exposure to such levels of Mako have, after all, not been deeply researched. Yet no one on the island shows any sign of Mako poisoning. If not poisoning, then what? I feel a strange sense of foreboding that is becoming more and more difficult to ignore. 

*~*~*~*~* 

"Riiiiight..." said Reno, "The island's haunted..." 

"Ok, maybe not haunted... but like this Dr. Umeshi says, maybe it's the Mako that's messin' with us," Yuffie replied, looking over at Elena. 

"I was not imagining it!" Elena cried, "He was there!" 

"Ok, 'Lena... Just calm down. Think about it rationally," said Reno, and Yuffie couldn't help but notice how his attitude toward Elena had so suddenly changed, "First off... Are you really gonna tell me that you believe in ghosts? And second... even on the *very* remote possibility that they do exist, why would Tseng decide to haunt an island in the middle of nowhere?" 

His hand rested sympathetically on the other Turk's shoulder. Yuffie remained silent, not wanting to interfere. This was the side of Reno that she had almost convinced herself she had only imagined. 

Reno glanced out at the gaping hole in the floor and fought back a shudder thinking about just how close Elena had come to falling as well. "We all miss him, 'Lena..." Reno whispered, so softly that Yuffie hardly caught it. 

*~*~*~*~* 

"So bright..." 

The light was all around him, warm and constantly moving... a living sea of light. 

"Where are we? Aeris?" 

She didn't answer him... simply held out her hand to him. Cloud could see nothing ahead of him... only the light. It all felt like a dream, and he feared that at any moment he might wake up and she would be gone again... and he would be back in the darkness of the lower level of the research center. But the warmth of Aeris' hand was enough to reassure him that this was real... somehow, it was real. 

She had appeared from the shadows, and called his name, and he had gone to her. Light had filled the space around him. 

"Come with me," she said, "Come with me, Cloud." 

And so, he took her hand and let her guide him. 

*~*~*~*~* 

"Cloud! Where are you?!" 

"Tifa!" 

"Yuffie?" 

"Hey, Rude... You down there, too?" 

"..." 

Tifa gazed upward to see not only Yuffie, but Reno and Elena as well, looking down at the two of them from the floor above them. The dust had mostly settled, and while a large portion of the ceiling was now on the floor, the side of the room Cloud had been on, much to Tifa's relief, was more or less untouched. But where was Cloud now? He couldn't have left. There was only one door, and she and Rude had barely made it out through there. He had simply... vanished. 

"So... Find Strife yet?" Reno called down to them after a moment. 

*~*~*~*~* 

Author's note: Is it getting interesting yet? Review please... :) 


	6. Ghosts of the Past

Every Now and Then  
by Desha 

*~*~*~*~* 

Author's note: Look! Another chapter... And no, this is not going to turn into a resurrection of Aeris story... despite her upcoming and somewhat extended cameo. ;) 

*~*~*~*~* 

Chapter 6: Ghosts of the Past 

"He was in here when the ceiling caved in!" Tifa shouted back at Reno, "But there's no sign of him now!" 

The fact that there wasn't any trace of Cloud at all was her only comfort for the time being. After all, if he wasn't buried somewhere in this mess, he had to have gotten out alright... he had to. 

"Well, he didn't just disappear..." said Yuffie. 

"Listen... You two stay put," said Reno, "Something weird's going on here. The three of us will take a quick look around up here, just to be on the safe side, then we'll meet you down there." 

*~*~*~*~* 

"Aeris?" he called out, hearing his own voice echoing, as though he was in a massive cavern. All around him was the light, its warm glow inviting and beautiful. Ribbons of color snaked their was through the vastness of it all... pale greens, vibrant blues, reds and yellows and gold, curtains of iridescent silver... tendrils of light that seemed to slip through his very fingers like liquid as he reached out to them. 

"Aeris? Where are you?" he called again. Somewhere from within the light came a soft, teasing laugh. 

"Come and find me," her voice replied. 

*~*~*~*~* 

"Creep-city," Yuffie murmured, engrossed in a passage from the research station's log book, "If it'd been me, I'd have gotten the hell outta here." 

"What?... More ghosts, I suppose," Reno remarked, his skepticism readily apparent in his voice. Elena, on the other hand, was silent... brooding as she trailed behind the other two, still peeved at that fact that no one seemed to believe that she'd really seen Tseng. 

'I didn't imagine it! He was there!' she thought to herself, '... Wasn't he?' 

"Elena! Keep up, will ya?" Reno snapped, and the other Turk immediately shook herself from her reverie, only to realize just how far behind she'd fallen. She hurried to catch up. 

Room after room revealed nothing. There was no sign of Tseng... There was no sign of anyone, for that matter, which nagged persistently at Reno's mind. The footprints in the dust upstairs had been real. They had also been very recent. Someone was in this building, or had been not long ago. Elena had said she'd heard someone calling to her. That someone had to be here still, lurking somewhere in the shadows... watching them. Reno didn't like being the one who was being watched. 

"This whole log reads like the beginning of a cheap horror novel..." said Yuffie, "And this Dr. Umeshi who was writing it? She starts sayin' some pretty strange stuff after awhile." 

*~*~*~*~* 

It had one... One of the little ones that couldn't fly away yet. Not yet, not yet, not yet... This one made horrible sounds though. It wished the little one would be quiet and stop trying to run away. It was bringing the little one to the light. The little one would love the light, just like It did. It didn't understand why the little one wanted to run away. 

The light wanted more... much, much more. It would bring the light more. It carried It's gift for the light back into the shadows. The little one was making so much noise, but soon it would be part of the light... 

*~*~*~*~* 

"Yuffie, would'ya put that book away already? We can all take a look at it when we meet up with the others," said Reno. 

"Yeah, but what if..." 

A wail broke the thick silence of the building, echoing through the corridors... Animalistic and distressed... no, terrified... it carried far in the still air. 

"What the fuck is that?" Reno wondered aloud. The cry continued, growing louder as if whatever was making the awful racket was coming closer. On instinct, both Turks drew their weapons, and awaited whatever was coming. A figure emerged from the shadows, carrying with it a small bundle that thrashed wildly, trying to break away. 

"Hey!" Reno yelled. The figure, whoever, or whatever, it was, paused as if it had only now noticed the three of them. It was concealed in a grey, hooded cloak, tattered and torn with wear. Bare feet were visible, as were a pair of skeleton-thin hands. For a moment, it simply stood there... then it dropped its frightened captive and fled, melting back into the shadows. 

"Hey! Get back here!" Reno ordered, taking off in the direction the figure had run, electro-rod in hand. Elena followed quickly behind her fellow Turk. Yuffie, too, began to follow, but the strange bundle that now lay quivering on the floor suddenly recaptured her attention. She cautiously moved toward it. 

Whatever it was, it was wrapped in what looked like an old bed sheet, and it squirmed and whimpered softly when the ninja prodded it gently with her foot. "H-hello?" she said, unsure of what to make of it. A tiny red snout nosed its way out of the little prison, and a moment later, without warning, the thing inside pounced, knocking Yuffie to the floor and landing on her stomach. 

She shrieked in surprise as the sudden attack threw her shuruken from her grasp, and she tried desperately to wrestle it away, her eyes widening at what she now saw. The monster's teeth gleamed a dull white in the poorly lit room, and its forked tongue lolled out of its mouth, flicking in and out every now and then. Red scales rippled as it crawled over her, pinning her to the floor and moving toward her face, sharp little claws digging into her ever so slightly. A dragon... a red dragon. 

She could feel its hot breath on her cheek as it leaned closer, and she closed her eyes, expecting at any moment to feel those sharp fangs sinking into her flesh... Instead, something warm and wet and rough glided across her cheek. Yuffie's eyes shot open as the dragon gave her a second, somewhat slobbery, lick. 

"Ewww!" she groaned, wrenching an arm free and wiping her face. The dragon cocked its head and stared at her. 

"Hey... You're just a baby, aren't ya?" she said, suddenly realizing that the creature was really no bigger than a large dog. 

"Yuffie!" 

The ninja started in alarm, turning her head to face the two returning Turks, who now stood in the doorway... weapons poised dangerously, ready to strike. 

"No! Don't hurt it!" Yuffie cried, at last managing to shove the little dragon off of her, and clambered to her feet. The baby gave an indignant yelp as it righted itself and retreated behind Yuffie, peering at the Turks from between her legs. 

"Oh... Look how cute it is!" Elena squealed. Reno turned his gaze on the other Turk. 

"Elena... *That* is a dragon... Dragons are not 'cute'..." he said, dryly. The baby hissed viciously at him as though it sensed that it was being talked about. Reno glared back at it. 

"Come on... Ditch the lizard and let's go warn the others... That weirdo ran downstairs," he added. 

*~*~*~*~* 

"What's taking them so long?" Tifa muttered. Waiting... She could be looking for Cloud, but instead, she was waiting... Waiting for Turks, no less! Why was she even waiting for them at all? It wasn't as if Reno was in charge. Why should she listen to him? 

Rationally, she knew it made sense to wait for the others. There was safety in numbers after all, and as much as she hated to admit that Reno could possibly be right about anything, some strange *was* going on around here. She kicked one of the broken boards that lay on the floor. She was worried. 

The company down here certainly wasn't doing anything to improve her mood, either. Rude was less than conversational. The least he could do was say something. Instead, he just stood... silent. Every once in awhile, Tifa was thought that he was staring at her, watching her, but with his eyes hidden by his sunglasses, she could never be sure. It was starting to become a little unnerving. 

"What in the name of Shiva is taking them so long?" she repeated, with even more exasperation than before. 

"Might've found something up there." 

Tifa jumped at the unexpected answer to her question, and looked at Rude in surprise. 

"Hmph... And here I was starting to think you couldn't talk," she commented. 

"..." 

*~*~*~*~* 

Who were these new ones? They were not here before... and now they had the little one. They had Its gift for the light. The light would not be pleased if It come back with nothing. It should not have run away from these new ones. It should have brought them to the light instead of the little one. The light would like them much, much more. They were like It... and the light especially liked the ones like It... 

It had nothing to bring the light. It didn't want to go back with nothing. It would have to find a way to bring the new ones to the light. 

*~*~*~*~* 

Tifa sat down on a pile of rubble. Reno and the others were taking their sweet time in making their way downstairs, and the awkward silence between Rude and herself was rapidly becoming intolerable. Save for the one sentence, she hadn't been able to get a word out of the man. 'How desperate am I? I actually *want* the damn Turk to talk,' she thought to herself. She glanced around at her surroundings. 'Of course, that Turk did kinda save me from getting buried...' 

"I... uh... I never did really thank you..." she said at last. Rude's head snapped up. 'Well, that got his attention...' Tifa thought. 

"If you hadn't been down here with me... Well... Anyway, thanks." 

"... You're welcome... Tifa." 

She only just caught her own name, added dubiously at the last second, very softly, almost hesitantly. A moment later, Rude looked away from her. Tifa shook her head. She couldn't figure him out at all. 

"Hey, you two.... Did'ya miss us?" her least favorite voice suddenly called from the shadows. 

"... Took you awhile..." said Rude. Tifa couldn't help but notice just how short and directly to the point anything the man said was. Reno stepped out into the small area of light provided by the hole in the ceiling. Elena and Yuffie were not far behind... and Tifa couldn't be certain, but she thought she saw something moving farther back, hidden in the shadows. 

"Yeah, well... We had a little run in with one of the locals," Reno replied. 

"Someone else is here after all?" Tifa asked. 

"Yeah, someone... Didn't get a good look at him though. He disappeared down a stairwell before me and 'Lena could catch him. He's down here somewhere now, " he said. 

There was a shuffling sound from the darkness and this time Tifa was certain something was moving. Rude must have heard it, too, because an instant later his gun was drawn and leveled at the doorway. 

"Easy Rude... That's just Yuffie's new pet," Reno muttered. 

"Pet?" echoed Tifa, about to question the matter farther, but Yuffie was already calling whatever it was into the room. 

"It's ok, Kaji... Come on... Good boy..." 

"Oh great... She's named it..." Reno groaned as something large and scaly crept into the light. 

"Yuffie! That's a..." Tifa began. 

"Well, I couldn't just leave him alone up there... What if that weirdo came back for him?" Yuffie said defensively, patting the dragon's head. The dragon gave a sort of contented mew and nuzzled her hand. 

*~*~*~*~* 

The fresh scent of flowers filled the air, and the grass beneath him was cool and damp. Cloud lay on his back staring up at the sky. The sun was shining brightly and Aeris sat nearby, humming softly and cheerfully... everything was perfect. 

He couldn't remember how he had found her again exactly. One moment, it had been nothing but the light... it had seemed that it would continue on forever. Aeris had called to him again and again, urging him on, telling him to come and find her. And so he had followed as best as he could, racing toward her voice as the colored ribbons of light swirled all around him. And then he was here, enjoying the sunshine, with Aeris for company. The light was slowly fading from his memory, though he tried every now and then to recall its beauty. Somewhere deep in his mind, he felt as though he was forgetting something more than just the light... but the more he tried to grasp at what he had forgotten, the farther it seemed to slip away. Eventually, he stopped reaching for it. Perhaps it wasn't so important after all. 

"Isn't it beautiful, Cloud... I could stay here forever," she said, happily settling herself beside him. 

"So could I..." 

*~*~*~*~* 

"He can't have gone far... and I think it's fairly reasonable to assume he's not upstairs. So he must be either on this floor, or farther down," said Reno, who by now had moved as far away from the little dragon as he could. He didn't particularly like the way it kept eyeing him... he couldn't help but notice that it seemed perfectly friendly toward everyone else. 'Don't like me, huh? Well, the feelin's mutual, ya stupid lizard...' he thought. 

"We're wasting time. Cloud's still missing, and there's some guy running around this place doing who know what. I say we find Cloud, finish looking for those scientists that are supposed to be here, and get off this Ifrit-forsaken island," Tifa declared. 

"Much as I hate to agree with ya, that was my plan exactly," Reno said, grinning. Tifa rolled her eyes and fought the urge to smack that grin right off his face. Sometimes she swore he actually enjoyed annoying people until they were on the verge of putting him in the hospital. 

"If we split up again, we can search faster," Yuffie added, "I'll stay with Reno and Elena and Tifa, you can stick with Rude." 

Tifa opened her mouth to protest, but Yuffie was already headed out the door into the darkness again, her "pet" obediently following. Reno shrugged and went after her, leaving Elena to catch up. 

'You did that on purpose, didn't you?' she thought, 'You're trying to make me give them a chance, aren't you?' 

"Let's go," she said to Rude, vowing silently that the day she forgave the Turks for anything they had done was the day Sephiroth came back to life and joined the Nibelheim ballet. Heading into the hallway, the pair took the path that led in the opposite direction the others had followed. 

*~*~*~*~* 

Author's note: Review, or else! Or else what? Or else I won't be as motivated to write the next chapter! Mwa ha ha ha ha!!!;) 

And on a side note, I would like to take this opportunity to shamelessly plug my new fanfiction site, which contains all of me stories, plus a few scenes and beginnings of fics that never got finished (more of those will be added as I have time to put them into html) So, please visit my site at http://www.geocities.com/desha428/index.html 


	7. Persistence of Memory

Every Now and Thenbr  
by Desha  
  
*~*~*~*~*  
  
Author's note: Sorry it took so long to get this finished and posted... School has been nuts. ;)  
  
*~*~*~*~*  
  
Chapter 7: Persistance of Memory  
  
"Reno?"  
  
Where was that idiot, Strife, anyway? He couldn't have gotten far. Why was he playing this little game of hide-and-seek with them? And why did Yuffie have to keep running off? This was the second time in ten minutes he'd lost sight of her in the shadows. That girl was more trouble than she was worth. Sometimes he wished he'd never bothered to worry about her in the first place. It did nothing but give him a headache.  
  
"Reno?"  
  
Besides... There were more pressing things to worry about. There was something strange about this place - more than just the fact that some creepy little weirdo was running around in the shadows - it was something in the air... something in the land... it was just something about this *place*. And it was starting to get to him. The unnatural quiet and stillness had the fine hairs on the back of his neck standing on end. As they made their way deeper into the facility, Reno could swear that the disturbing sense of forboding he'd had for some time now was steadily getting stronger. Something was here. He didn't know what, and he was fairly certain that he would rather not find out... but something was definately here, with them... watching them. It was more than just the strange cloaked figure they'd run into upstairs. He was on his guard, and keeping a sharp eye out for that particular nutcase... though admitedly, the feeble light from the tip of his mag-rod didn't do much to chase away the shadows. 'Should've brought a damn flashlight...' he thought as his gaze roamed the darkness beyond the little sphere of light.  
  
"Reno?"  
  
He hated being on edge like this. It wasn't like him to get jumpy, and it left him with the sensation that he had no control over the situation. Where the hell was Strife?! The sooner they found him, the sooner they could haul ass out of this place. They weren't going to find any scientists... he'd known that since the moment he and Yuffie had found the skeleton on the second floor. If they kept looking, they would probably just find more of the same... Reno prefered not to share that fate.  
  
"Reno?"  
  
"What, Elena?!" the Turk snapped, as his presistant comrade finally succeeded in jarring him from his thoughts. He realized that she had been trying to get his attention for some time now, but he wasn't much in the mood to talk. Elena took an involuntary step back as the red-head rounded on her.  
  
"I... I... N-nevermind," she said quickly. Reno sighed. No sense taking out his frustration on her.  
  
"What is it?" he asked, a bit less harshly.  
  
"R-reno... Do you really think I'm weak?" she asked, unable to meet his gaze. Reno blinked... He hadn't expected that. Now that he thought about it, though, he had to admit that it was a fair question. He'd been saying it practiacally from the day she'd been promoted to the Turks. 'Don't act so weak, Elena.' It was one of his favorite insults. Personal, condescending, infuriating... It fit damn near any occasion.  
  
"Well... Do you?"  
  
He'd been so caught up in pondering her query, he'd nearly forgotten that she was waiting for an answer.  
  
"Tch... 'Lena, why're you asking me this now?" he replied, shugging it off and hoping she'd drop the subject. 'Where in all of Holy did Yuffie and that damn lizard get to?' he wondered.  
  
"Because I want to know."  
  
She stared down at her hands, as if expecting to hear the worst. Reno swallowed the lump that had suddenly formed in his throat. If there was anything he hated more than being on edge, it was a guilt-trip.  
  
"Look, 'Lena... I..."  
  
"Hey! Hurry up, you two! There's an elevator over here!" a voice called from farther down the hall. 'Saved by the shrill, impacient yell...' thought Reno.  
  
"Yeah, yeah... We're comin' Yuff!"  
  
*~*~*~*~*  
  
It watched them from the shadows. They were moving towards the light on their own, and It was overjoyed. They would make it easy for It if they only kept moving... deeper, deeper, deeper... Deeper into the darkness. And from the darkness, they would emerge into the light. They even brought the little one with them. The light would be pleased indeed. The light would give It everything it wanted for bringing them.  
  
Everything It wanted...  
  
*~*~*~*~*  
  
"Cloud! Answer me!" she called, stopping short as she walked right into a spider's web, all but invisible in the darkness, that criss-crossed the hallway, "Gah... Stupid spiders..."  
  
She stopped to pull the web away from her arms.  
  
The light that had shown through the collasped ceiling in the large room they'd come from was no longer visible, but Rude - and Tifa grudgingly had to give the Turk credit for his perparedness - had a small, but surprisingly decent penlight. In fact, it was much brighter than she'd have expected something so minicule to be.  
  
'Probably standard issue for those bastards...' she groused silently. But at least two of them weren't forced to grope their way through the dark hallway. They had come across only one door in the long stretch, which had turned out to be only a small store room. The voices of the other group had faded into the darkness. It was just her and Rude now. And she was making no effort to hide that she was none too pleased by the fact. Her only real consolation was that could have been Reno. Tifa was fairly certain that she would have killed the red-head by now had she ended up stuck with *him*. She didn't know how Yuffie could stand him at all. Rude, at least, was tolerable.  
  
"Where is he?" she wondered aloud.  
  
"He didn't come this way," Rude said from behind her. She jumped slightly. 'I really wish he'd quit doing that!' she thought. It was the second time one of his sudden statements had caught her completely offguard.  
  
"How do you know that?" she asked, suspiciously, wondering what gave the Turk such an insight.  
  
"... You wouldn't have walked into that if he had," Rude replied, motioning toward the remains of the spiderweb that clung to the ceiling and walls.  
  
*~*~*~*~*  
  
"Hurry up you two!" Yuffie yelled from the end of the hall. Reno could only just make out her figure in the shadows.  
  
"We're coming... We're coming..." Reno muttered as he moved toward her. Elena brought up the rear. His footsteps were entirely too loud on the tile floor. Or everything else was just too damn quite. He wasn't sure which anymore. Each step seemed to grow louder to his ears, until suddenly, his foot came down without a sound. Reno froze.  
  
Slowly he looked down. Where there should have been cold, white tile there was... water? Tiny waves rippled out from where he stood. He turned around. Elena was no longer behind him.  
  
"What the hell..."  
  
There was nothing behind him. There was nothing in front of him either, for that matter. Only a vast expanse of dark water stretching on Odin only knew how far. And there was a light. Oh yes, there was a light, but he could see it's source.  
  
"Elena? Yuffie?"  
  
"It's alright, Reno... It will all be alright."  
  
He turned at the sound of the voice, weapon drawn and ready for a fight. The woman he saw was beautiful... pale and slender, and perfectly at ease in this strange place. Her hair was as red as his, neatly puled up and back, a few locks left loose to frame her lovely face. And she was smiling. Reno remembered that smile.  
  
"M-mom?"  
  
"Come with me, Reno... Come with me, and everything will be alright," she replied.  
  
"I'm losing my mind... I'm totally, utterly, and completely losing my mind..." Reno said, more to himself than to the woman who stood demurely before him. He backed up a step.  
  
"Reno..."  
  
"No... No fucking way..."  
  
"Reno..." She moved slowly toward him.  
  
"You're dead..." he said, taking another step back. The hand that gripped his electro-rod shook almost imperceptably for a moment, until he forced it to stop.  
  
"No, Reno... I'm not. Come with me."  
  
"You're dead," he repeated, "You fucking died when I was a kid!"  
  
"Reno..."  
  
"Get back!" He fell back into a defensive position, poised to strike if the woman came closer. When she stepped toward him, he attacked.   
  
"Reno!"  
  
This was a different voice... a much different voice. A familiar voice... Elena? He stopped just in time.  
  
"Reno! What the hell is wrong with you?" Yuffie cried, coming up behind him. The electro-rod clattered to the floor.  
  
*~*~*~*~*  
  
Reno was staring at her, his face white as a sheet and uncharacteristically readable. Confusion was etched in startling clarity across his features... perhaps even a little shock, and fear. Elena didn't so much as twitch until he dropped his weapon.  
  
"R-Reno? A-are you alright?" she asked, hoping that whatever had come over her fellow Turk had passed.  
  
"Elena?"  
  
She nodded, slowing, in confirmation.  
  
"About what you said earlier... About seeing Tseng..."  
  
"Y-yes?"  
  
"I believe you."  
  
*~*~*~*~*  
  
Author's note: Please feed the author... Review!  
  
And once again... the shameless plug for my new fanfiction site, which contains all of me stories, plus a few scenes and beginnings of fics that never got finished (more of those will be added as I have time to put them into html) So, please visit my site at 


	8. Lost Souls

Every Now and Then  
by Desha  
  
*~*~*~*~*  
  
Author's note: *sniffle* No reviews at all for my last chapter. Hopefully, that was just due to the formatting errors, which I have now fixed. I hope someone out there is still reading this... *holds up bound and gagged silver-haired villain as incentive* This chapter has a very special guest!  
  
*~*~*~*~*  
  
Chapter 8: Lost Souls  
  
Reno pressed his fingers to his temples, rubbing gently, hoping to deter the headache he felt coming on.   
  
"What in the name of Holy *was* that?" he wondered allowed.  
  
"Um... Reno? Care to fill us in?" said Yuffie. Reno cocked an eyebrow at the ninja. Hadn't they even noticed what was going on? Behind her, the bulky little creature she'd adopted ambled about, sniffing at the floor, as though he too were trying to figure out the reason for the redhead's strange behavior.  
  
"So you didn't see her?" Reno asked, hoping to confirm the thought that was beginning to form in his mind.  
  
"See who?"  
  
"Nevermind... Look, tell me what happened just before I went after Elena," he replied. On hearing her name, Elena snapped out the her own reverie.  
  
"You just... stopped," she said, "You were totally out of it for a minute... Just standing there, not doing anything. And then you suddenly turned around and... attacked me."  
  
So they hadn't seen her. They hadn't heard him talking to her. It had all been in his mind? Maybe he really was going nuts.  
  
"Reno, what happened?" asked Yuffie.  
  
"How the hell should I know?!" he snapped, starting off down the hallway again, "One second, I'm here... the next I'm talking to... Shit, this is just too weird."  
  
"Reno! What are you talking about? Talking to who?... Where are you going?" Elena called after him.  
  
"Where do you think? I'm going to find Strife, and then I'm getting as far away from this island as possible."  
  
*~*~*~*~*  
  
"Cloud? What are you thinking about?"  
  
He was staring up at the patterns of the stars in the tapestry that was the night sky. Nibelhiem... His home... He'd looked up at these stars so many times when he was younger. So many times, that their twinkling pattern had engraved itself in his mind. Stars just didn't look quite the same anywhere else. They always reminded him of...  
  
What was it they reminded him of? He suddenly realized that he couldn't remember. He couldn't remember at all.  
  
"Cloud?"  
  
"I... I'm trying to remember..." he said absently. What was it? He closed his eyes, thinking hard. Not a what... a who? Who did he think of when he looked at the stars over Nibelhiem? Something wasn't right.  
  
"Aeris... I think..."  
  
He turned to look at her, but she was gone.  
  
"Aeris?"  
  
Cloud stood, looking all around. The night breeze ruffled his hair, and in the low bushes, a chorus of crickets chirped merrily in the warm night. He looked out from the top of the well where he was perched. There was something familiar about this, too...  
  
"Aeris, where did you go?"  
  
"Cloud!"  
  
He turned toward the panicked summons, eyes widening at the sight he beheld. Aeris... alone, and unprotected. From high above, descending from the night sky, from the very darkness itself, a shadow fell. It's form somehow darker even than the night around it, it came closer, like a great bird of prey diving for the kill. The moon emerged for a brief second, and Cloud saw the glint of moonlight on metal.  
  
And then came the laughter. Cold, and cruel, it sent a chill down Cloud's spine. He tried to run toward Aeris, but for every step he took toward her, she was somehow two steps farther away. And still, the shadow dropped, and the icy laughter rang in his ears. He tried to tear his eyes away, but some unseen force held his gaze on Aeris' slender form. The clouds parted and the moon shown down, and now he could see the shadow for what it was. He saw Aeris' stiffen in fear, and then he heard her scream.  
  
"No!"  
  
All the world seemed to slow, as if to prolong the moment when the cold, hardened steal of the Masamune met soft, innocent flesh. The great shadow landed behind Aeris, whose eyes had gone wide. Shining with blood, the massive sword skewered her, and she slumped forward. A gloved hand drew back the blade and let the last Cetra tumble gracelessly to the ground. From behind a silver curtain of hair, Sephiroth's eyes glowed a harsh green.  
  
"Aeris!"  
  
He could finally approach her now. She lay pale, lifeless in a growing pool of crimson. Her features were frozen in a look of horror, so very different than the serene look he had seen on her face before.  
  
"Bastard!" he yelled. Sephiroth smiled, standing over her body. She had come back... She had come back, and this monster had taken her from him again. "Why?!" Cloud demanded, the word issuing forth with a choked, forced sound.  
  
"Because..." the silver-haired soldier replied, casually, not the least bit phased by the heartless act he had just committed or by the unrestrained fury that flashed in Cloud's eyes, "... Because you care about her."  
  
Cloud rushed forward with a primal scream, not caring that he was unarmed... not caring that Sephiroth would kill him as coldly as he had just killed Aeris...  
  
*~*~*~*~*  
  
"That *thing* is not coming with us, Yuffie!"  
  
"But I can't just leave Kaji here... He needs me! And what if that weirdo comes back for him?" the ninja protested. If it wasn't one thing, it was another. The two women had finally ceased their interrogation of him over what had happened in the hallway. He was in no mood to discuss it... especially since he wasn't sure himself what he'd seen. And now this. An elevator to the lower levels of the complex... to the source of the fountain... and he had to contend with Yuffie and her new pet. But there was no way in hell Reno was going to cram himself into an elevator with a wild dragon, baby or otherwise.  
  
"Fine... Stay here with him, then!" he countered.  
  
"No *way* am I missing out on seeing this materia fountain, Turkey!"  
  
"The fountain or the dragon, Brat... Hurry up and chose."  
  
"... What's all the noise about?" came a new voice from the shadows. Reno turned his attention from the annoyingly stubborn ninja-thief and her pet monster to the two new arrivals at their little party.  
  
"Just the brat bein' an idiot," he replied, perfectly aware that a statement like that was bound to get him in trouble. He was right. Reno had only seconds to dodge the punch the aforementioned brat aimed at him. The little dragon growled and hissed at him, in response to its master's aggression toward the Turk.  
  
He grinned at her, only to be caught off-guard by a sudden attack from behind. Tifa had effortlessly swept the distracted Turk's legs out from under him, and Reno fell to the floor. He growled at Yuffie's mocking laughter, and quickly got up, nonchalantly dusting off his jacket sleeves. The glare he shot at Elena quickly quelled any laughter that she had might have been holding back, but it didn't stop Rude's quiet snort of amusement.  
  
"Very funny," he grumbled at Tifa. Though it was quite clear from the look on her face, that she would welcome any excuse she could find to give the Turk a good pummeling. She was trying, albeit only half-heartedly at the moment, to goad him into a fight. 'Not gonna work, sweetheart,' he thought to himself. He knew better than to fall for that.  
  
"Can we focus here?!"  
  
This new demand came from the most unexpected source. Elena, far from being as amused as he'd expected, stood rigidly with her arms folded across her chest, looking every bit the stern disciplinarian that she usually was not.  
  
"You're all acting like children! In case you've forgotten, we have bigger problems than Reno being the all-around jerk that he is!" she continued, and Reno had to try hard not to smirk. Her tone of voice sounded more than a little childish herself. Almost a whine, but not quite, and any moment, he half-expected her to stamp her foot or throw a tantrum. She definitely needed more practice at taking charge. Unfortunately, she was also perfectly right. This was not the time for petty squabbles.  
  
*~*~*~*~*  
  
It was enough to drive a person nuts... Reno, in his infinite capacity to annoy people, just had to provoke Yuffie. Yuffie, she had rarely seen back down from a fight, especially when it was Reno who was starting it. And of course, *since* it was Reno, Tifa joined in at her friend's side. And then there was Rude, who seemed, for the moment, perfectly content to let them go at each other until they worked things out. This was ridiculous... They were supposed to be looking for Cloud. They were supposed to be looking for the scientists that worked on this island. They were supposed to be trying to figure out what was going on around here.  
  
They were not supposed to be fighting amongst themselves!  
  
"Can we focus here?!" she yelled.  
  
Elena had no idea where that sudden burst of confidence had come from, but it certainly got their attention. Even Reno shut up and looked at her.  
  
"You're all acting like children! In case you've forgotten, we have bigger problems than Reno being the all-around asshole that he is!" she continued, the words coming of their own accord. And just as suddenly as it had come, the surge of confidence dwindled, and old fears crept back into her mind. She sounded pathetic. Like a little kid trying to get her way. But they were getting nowhere like this. 'Well, I've dug my hole this deep... Might as well keep going,' she thought.   
  
"We're all in this together, so I say we act like it!"  
  
Reno was going to have a field day with her later. For a moment, no one said anything.   
  
"Damn, 'Lena... I didn't know you had it in you," Reno said at last. Elena blinked.  
  
*~*~*~*~*  
  
"Damn, 'Lena... I didn't know you had it in you," he said. That was a lie. Despite his ridiculing remarks to the contrary, Elena was one of the strongest women he'd ever known. She just needed to let that side of her show through more often.  
  
He grinned.  
  
"Well, I guess we'd better start workin' together, then."  
  
*~*~*~*~*  
  
Cloud's enraged charge was met with an infuriating coolness from his opponent. Sephiroth stood motionless, almost as though utterly uninterested in the situation... until Cloud was within striking distance.  
  
The battle and death, one way or the other, that Cloud was expecting did not come. Instead, one fluid movement forced him to the ground. Cruel hands that were strangely warm on his skin held him down, roughly twisting an arm behind his back. Sephiroth straddled him, keeping the younger man, who lay face down where he'd fallen, immobilized.  
  
"You lose," his silky voice whispered close to Cloud's ear, "And now, you're mine."  
  
A soft hum filled the air, and everything around him was illuminated by the brightest light he had ever seen. The smallest grains of dirt and gravel on the ground stood out in sharp relief until. It grew brighter still until at last, Cloud was forced to shut his eyes against it.  
  
The next feeling he knew was the unnerving sensation of falling...  
  
*~*~*~*~*  
  
Author's note: Ever get the feeling that Desha is not exactly a big fan of Aeris? ^_~ Poor thing... I resurrect her for the sole purpose of forcing Cloud to watch Sephy kill her again. Yes... I'm evil. If this chapter seemed a bit disjointed, I apologize. There are two reasons for this... One, I've noticed that the plot has been moving a little more slowly than I want it to, and two, I had to rewrite it from memory after my dad accidentally deleted the unfinished stories folder on my laptop. (He's never coming near my computer again.) 


	9. Long Way Down

Every Now and Then  
  
by Desha  
  
*~*~*~*~*  
  
Author's Note: I am going to finish this story it if kills me! LOL! And don't forget to visit my fan fic site... Link is in my profile. :)  
  
*~*~*~*~*  
  
Chapter 9: Long Way Down  
  
"Well, I guess we'd better start workin' together, then."   
  
"Are you sure you're alright, Reno?" Yuffie asked. The strange spell that had come over the Turk only minutes before was still lingering vividly in her mind, as she was sure it was in Elena's. The fact that he hadn't exactly been forthcoming about the details of what he'd seen... or thought he'd seen... only made her more curious.  
  
"I'm fine," he said firmly.  
  
"Did we miss something?" Tifa asked.  
  
"Nothing important... Just tried to take Elena's head off, that's all," Reno muttered, and moved toward the elevator. Of course, with no power, the car wouldn't work, but if the cables were still in place it wouldn't be too difficult to climb down to the next level... Hell, if they were lucky, the people who designed this place might have even been intelligent enough to put in a ladder for maintainence access, "Rude... Help me with the door, will ya? And that stupid lizard is not coming with us, Yuffie!"  
  
Rude shrugged and stood opposite Reno, who was wedging the handle of his electo-rod between the sliding doors of the elevator... They just needed enough room to get a decent grip... the doors popped apart a fraction of an inch.  
  
"Alright, pull," he said, latching onto his own half, and throwing his weight back. The door groaned loudly and between the effort of the two men, it inched its way open. It wasn't long before they'd openned a gap more than wide enough for them to fit through. Reno glanced cautiously inside. He couldn't tell if the car was above or below them... though given the general state of the building, he really hoped it was below them. The light from Rude's penlight revealed that there was indeed an access ladder... and even better, in a small recess next to said ladder was a pair of flashlights. He reached out and gathered them up, clicking the switch on one. A beam of light illuminated the dark hallway. He tried the second, and it too worked. He tossed it to Tifa, and kept the first for himself.  
  
"Ladies first," Reno said with a slight bow of invitation.  
  
"Gee... Thanks," scoffed Tifa, but she slipped past him and into the elevator shaft.  
  
*~*~*~*~*  
  
They were almost exactly where It wanted them to be. It watched them silently from the end of the hallway and they prepared to go down. It slowly moved away... Their way was not It's way... It would take the easy way down. Down, down, down to the light. They would find their way on their own... all It would have to do was meet them there and guide them into the light. The light would be pleased with It... The light would finally give it what it wanted.  
  
*~*~*~*~*  
  
"Where... am I?"  
  
There was nothing... nothing but the light. He was still falling. Sephiroth was gone, as was Aeris, and he was falling towards... well, towards nothing, really. Nothing that he could see, at any rate.  
  
"We don't know..." a warm, feminine voice suddenly answered him. Cloud turned his head toward the sound, but saw no one.  
  
"Where are you! Why did you bring me here?!... Where's Aeris?! And Sephiroth!" he shouted, the sensation of falling never ceasing for a moment.  
  
"We are wherever we are," another voice replied, male this time, and again Cloud turned to look, only to see the shimmering light all around him, "All of us are here."  
  
"But where the hell is here?" he yelled back at the voice.  
  
"She already told you... We don't know..." answered a third voice, also male.  
  
"I don't understand!"  
  
"We know... We don't entirely understand it either. We have been here for a very long time... At least, we think we have. It's so hard to remember..." the first voice said, in an appologetic tone.  
  
"We had hoped that you'd come to help us," said the second voice.  
  
"Help you?"  
  
"Help us find our way back," said the third, "We've been trying for so long..."  
  
"You mean... We're trapped here?" asked Cloud, his mouth suddenly dry. There was no way out... he could somehow sense it now. There was only the light, and nothing more. And a new thought occured to him, "Am I... Am I dead? Is that why I saw Aeris?"  
  
"No... At least we don't think this is death," the woman's voice said, "There was another person here... Doctor Umeshi was here. She disappeared. We hope that she somehow found a way home."  
  
"Yes... we think that Kionae found a way back to the island," the second voice concurred.  
  
"I don't," said the third voice, "I think she's the one who's dead."  
  
"A doctor? Island?" said Cloud, busily processing this new information, the activity clearing his mind for the first time since he'd spoken to Aeris, "The island... The research team!"  
  
"The island... I can barely even remember it now. Are you sure it was an island? I thought it was a cave," the second of the men replied.  
  
"You're the people I was sent to find!" Cloud suddenly shouted, "I was sent... We were sent to find you. There are... there are others looking for us!" How could he have forgotten? It had been chased from his mind completely until now... but Tifa had to be looking for him... and Yuffie... and even the Turks.  
  
"Others? Do you think they can find us here?" asked the woman.  
  
"I don't know," Cloud replied, sullenly, but there was still hope.. wasn't there?  
  
"I doubt it," said the second of the male voices.  
  
*~*~*~*~*  
  
One by one, they made their way down the ladder. Above them, Kaji, Yuffie's little dragon, could be heard whining softly. The baby hadn't taken well to the idea of being left behind, but as Reno had repeatedly pointed out to Yuffie, it never would have been able to climb down the ladder, and even assuming it was old enough to fly... which Reno doubted, since their mysterious visitor had been able to capture it in the first place... there just wasn't room in the elevator shaft for it to spread its wings. So instead, Yuffie had said a mournful goodbye to the little dragon, promising to come back for it as soon as she could, and left it on the floor above them. It had poked its head through the partially opened doors and watched them descend, crying plaintively the whole time... so much so that Yuffie had almost climbed back up. Unfortunatly, she'd have had to climb right over Reno to do that, and the Turk wasn't about to give way to the ninja just so she could run off and console her stupid pet... not that his presence stopped her from trying. She had almost knocked him off the ladder... as it was, his flashlight had plunged to an untimely death.  
  
"I said I was sorry," said Yuffie, calling up to Reno, who had refused to say a word to her ever since.  
  
"Just keep moving," Reno growled. If he'd fallen, he would have probably ended up taking Yuffie right along with him... as well as Tifa and Rude, both of whom were below them. Only Elena was relatively safe, having been the last to begin the descent. It didn't sit particularly well with him, coming so dangerously close to such a loss. They could all have ended up dead.  
  
They continued down in silence for a time. The shaft was long, the second subterranean level of the building having been constructed at the same depth as the Mako fountain. It was close to a three hundred foot climb. Moreover, they still hadn't encountered the elevator car. In the back of his mine, Reno hoped that it was waiting for them at the bottom, as opposed to hanging precariously over their heads.  
  
"I think I see the bottom!" Tifa's voice echoed up from below. Reno glanced down at the spot of light a good fifty feet beneath him. Whatever Tifa saw in the glow of her flashlight was considerably farther down, and he couldn't make it out from his position.  
  
"'Bout damn time... I was gettin' sick of climbing," Reno muttered.  
  
"Me, too," Elena's voice agreed from up above. He couldn't see even the outline of her body when he glanced up. Without warning, there was a sharp crack from nearly the exact position from which Reno had just heard her voice, followed by a startled scream, a cry of "Reno!", and a flurry of panicked movement. A loud clang rang out, and Reno felt the ladder vibrate slightly as though something had just struck it.  
  
"Elena!" he gasped, one arm hooking itself instinctively around the nearest rung of the ladder. He barely had time to snatch blindly at her as she tumbled past him, fingers hooking into the fabric of her jacket in a death grip. Her plunging weight nearly pulled him off of the ladder as well, and he was sure that the sickening popping sound his shoulder had just made couldn't have been a good thing.  
  
"Elena..." he grunted, straining to hang onto both her and the ladder, "You need to go on a diet..." By now, his shoulder was protesting painfully, and it was all he could do to keep his fingers clenched in their precarious grip. White spots appeared before his eyes, and he shook his head to clear away the haze that the pain was causing.  
  
"Elena... I can't hold you... much longer..." he said, gritting his teeth. Though what really worried him was that the other Turk wasn't moving... She was completely unresponsive. 'Not good,' he thought.  
  
"Hang on Reno... I'm coming!" Yuffie called out.  
  
"Hurry!" He could hear her climbing toward them, her boots ringing out on the rungs of the ladder, and at the same time, Tifa swung the flashlight beam up towards them. Reno could see Elena a bit more clearly now. He'd caught her by the the back of her jacket, and he briefly wonder how it was that she hadn't simply slipped out of the garment when he'd grabbed on. The trickle of crimson on the side of her head, explained the loud clang he'd heard when she fell. By the looks of things, she was out cold.  
  
He glanced down at Yuffie. Already the fabric was sliding out of his grasp. He closed his eyes, willing himself to hold on, just a little longer. It was only a matter of seconds before Yuffie took hold of the unconscious Turk, taking some of the weight off of Reno's arm, but it seemed like days.  
  
"Got her?" Reno asked.  
  
"Yeah, I got her," Yuffie grunted, wrapping an arm securely around Elena's waist. Rude wasn't far behind, and a moment later, he too was supporting the other Turk. Reno groaned and forced his aching fingers to release their grip.  
  
"Get her down," he said, flexing the abused digits, and wincing as he tried to raise his arm, only to find that the motion sent a jolt of agony coursing through him. 'Broken or just dislocated?' he wondered as he rested his forhead against the cool metal of the ladder. Either way, the climb down was going to be loads of fun. For a time, he didn't move. That had been close... Far, far too close. Finally, he, too, started down again, slowly and being overly mindful of his shoulder... not that it helped much. Everything he did seemed to jar it ever so slightly. Minutes seemed to grow in length as he crept down at an agonizingly slow pace, having the use of only one arm.  
  
"Almost there, Reno!" Yuffie called up to him. He paused and looked down. The others were already at the bottom. Another thirty feet and he was home free. Elena was propped up against the side of the shaft apparently dazed, but moving every now and then, and Tifa had the flashlight trained on him. At last, he joined them.  
  
"Fuck," he groaned, and sighed with relief as he allowed himself to lean back against the wall and slide to a seated position on the floor, "Is she alright?"  
  
"... More or less," said Rude, whose sunglasses had been stashed in his pocket, having been a hinderance during the dark climb down. Soft brown eyes now stared at him appraisingly, and Reno almost didn't recognize him for a moment. It was rare indeed to see the man without his trademark accessory.  
  
"I... I'm ok, Reno..." said a very subdued Elena.  
  
"Are *you* alright?" Yuffie asked.  
  
"More or less... Shoulder's killin' me, though," Reno replied, greatly relieved to hear Elena's voice, "Of course, with my track record somethin's probably broken..."  
  
Rude frowned, and slowly eased Reno's jacket off.  
  
"... Don't think so. Shoulder's just out of joint," he said, "... This is gonna hurt."  
  
That was all the warning he got. Reno had bare moments to brace himself as Rude took hold of his upper arm with one hand and pulled, his other hand pushing back against the Turk's side, and Reno bit his lower lip to keep from crying out until, with a pop, his shoulder snapped back into place. Reno sighed in relief as the pain was greatly reduced to more managable levels.  
  
"I ever tell you your bedside manner sucks?" he asked, grinning at Rude.  
  
"..."  
  
*~*~*~*~*  
  
It was a strange thing to watch. Tifa had remained frozen, simply observing. She'd only barely had the presence of mind to aim the flashlight at the two Turks when she had realized what was going on, the sight of Reno desparately holding onto Elena still etched in her mind. The pain had shown through on his face, undeniable even as far away as she was from the action, yet he had refused to let go until Yuffie and Rude had taken her from him.  
  
He only surprised her more when the first thing he'd asked when he reached the bottom was about Elena. Was this really the same man she had long convinced herself had no conscience or moral fiber whatsoever?  
  
"Well? What are we doin' sitting around here? Thought we came down here to find Strife," Reno said, climbing to his feet. The five of them forced the doors of the shaft open and stepped into the large room beyond. Rude carried Elena and set her down against the wall. Reno knealt down beside her.  
  
"Still in one piece?" he asked, tilting her face up to look at her.  
  
"Just a... a little dizzy. I guess I hit my head," she said, blinking woozily.  
  
"Hey, Rude... Got a Restore materia on ya?" he asked. The other Turk nodded, the cool green sphere already in hand. It glowed as he began to cast the spell, the soft light within it swirling rapidly beneath the crystalline surface. And suddenly, the sphere shattered into dust, sending tiny sparks of light scattering into the air, whirling away in all directions for a moment, and then surging back together into a wave of energy that circled them like a ribbon of light for a moment before sinking downward a bit, and rocketting off towards the far wall, which it then vanished through.  
  
"Well... That was... different," Reno said, blinking in surprise.  
  
"... Very."  
  
"What happened?" Tifa asked, examining the section of the wall where the light had disappeared.  
  
"I guess that's what she meant by absorption..." Yuffie said suddenly. All four of the others stared at her as though she'd grown a second head.  
  
"What who meant?" Reno and Tifa chorused simultaneously, and the each looked at the other with a glare. Yuffie choked back a laugh at their expressions.  
  
"That log book we found upstairs, Reno... I told you earlier that that Dr. Umeshi person had some weird stuff to say," she replied, rolling her eyes and giving the Turk a 'you-never-listen-do-you?' look.  
  
*~*~*~*~*  
  
Author's note: Review, or I'll inflict even more pain upon Reno in chapter 10! Mwa ha ha ha ha! ;)  
  
Reno: No... No, get away from me...  
  
Author: Mwa ha ha ha ha!  
  
Reno: For God's sake, review! *is glomped* 


	10. Phantoms

Every Now and Then  
  
by Desha  
  
*~*~*~*~*  
  
Author's Note: Still reading? Good! With any luck, I'll be able to wrap this up to my satisfaction in one or two more chapters. To all those who started reading this mess when I first posted it, thank you so much for sticking around! I really do appreciate it, and I'm sorry it's taken so long. I've never written a real sequel to any of my stories before, and it's a lot harder than I thought it'd be. Anyway, on with the show!  
  
*~*~*~*~*  
  
Chapter 10: Phantoms  
  
To: Energy Research Committee, Shinra Power Company, Midgar  
  
From: Dr. Kionae Umeshi  
  
Re: Mako Fountain Study, Week 24  
  
Work continues on schedule, despite the difficulties incurred in the beginning of the project. Our facility has been completed, and all equipment has arrived. Our laboratory is fully functional, and Drs. Farwith and Rigo have initiated the first of a series of experiments dealing with the effects of the fountain on proccessed materia, such as that used by military personel for spellcasting.  
  
Of particular interest is the phenomenon we have only recently observed, which Dr. Farwith has tentatively termed "Absorption". The use of materia spheres in close proximity to the fountain, especially high level ("mastered") materia, results in the complete destruction of the crystalline framework of the sphere and the release of visible wave of pure Mako energy. Once freed from the bonds of its natural crystal structure, this engery is almost immediately drawn toward the fountain, which, as far as we have been able to determine, absorbs it.  
  
We are currently testing various substances in an attempt to capture the stray Mako energy that is released by the Absorption process. However, our success has been extremely limited. The energy is drawn toward the fountain with such force that it is conducted directly through most materials. At this time the only substance it seems to have difficulty passing through is mithril. In an average 40% of the experiments conducted, the energy has superheated the mithril test sheeting to the point of partial melting before passing through and into the fountain, thus slowing the travel time by an average of 1.7%.  
  
We believe that with enough study, this phenomenon may be instrumental in cost-effective method of harnessing Mako energy, as it requires almost no effort to release said energy. We will continue our attempts to develop a procedure for capturng and channeling Mako through the use of absorption.  
  
As this was not an expected development, we are lacking some of the equipment which we believe may prove vital to success in this area of our research. It is for this reason that...  
  
*~*~*~*~*  
  
"And then she goes on to ask for more money from Shinra, blah, blah, blah..." Yuffie said, looking up from the page.  
  
"Great... So I take it that means using materia down here is pretty much out of the question. So much for a nice simple Cure spell to solve all our medical problems," Reno grumbled, absently wiping the blood from Elena's temple with his sleeve.  
  
"S'ok... I'm fine..." Elena said, sounding far from fine. Her voice had a dazed, sleepy edge to it, and her eyes were unfocused and dreamy. Reno snorted.  
  
"Yeah. Right, Elena. Rude, stay with her. The rest of us are gonna find Strife, drag his spikey ass out of wherever the fuck he's been hiding, and then we're going home."  
  
"..." Rude nodded.  
  
*~*~*~*~*  
  
Tifa led the way down the hall, flashlight in hand. Unlike the rest of the building, whose musty rooms and cobweb strewn halls left a person with a distinct impression of desolate loneliness, this level had the unnerving, unnaturally clean smell that she usually associated with hospitals. Yuffie was directly behind her, walking with her arms at an odd angle as she tried to read farther in the log book by the perhipheral glow of Tifa's flashlight.  
  
"So now listen to this..." said Yuffie, "It's from her personal log. 'Kris is missing. She has been working late into the night all week, and this morning she was gone. Terran and Lorn haven't seen her, nor have any of the lab assistants. I'm hoping that she's just gone out to look for surface vents of the fountain again, but I can't help but feel that something is very, very wrong. I haven't said anything up until now, but it's happening more frequently lately. Sometimes I find myself in parts of the lab, with no recollection of how I got there. And I'm seeing things. One minute they're there, and the next they're gone. At first I thought I was going crazy. Old friends... my sister... my grandfather... things from my childhood... But now Terran sees them, too. We spoke with Lorn and the rest of the staff, and they all confessed to having similar experiences. I fear it may be our proximity to the fountain. Some sort of undocumented form of Mako poisoning, perhaps.'"  
  
"Oh, that's nice to know..." Reno commented dryly from the back of the group. They now found themselves in a large room, the walls of which were lined with computer monitors, microscopes, and a plethora of other equipment that the Turk couldn't even begin to identify. A large mechanically controlled door decorated the far wall, "So..." he said, coming up directly beside Tifa, "What say we find out what's behind door number one?"  
  
"We're looking for Cloud," she replied, coldly, "With no power, if he'd gone through there, the door would already be open."  
  
"Assuming he came down here the same way we did."  
  
"How else would he get down here?" she said, rounding on him.  
  
"Oh come on... Ya really think they built this place without a couple of extra exits, just in case?" Reno replied, arms folded over his chest.  
  
"You know something you're not telling us, don't you..." she said, accussingly.  
  
"I'm telling you now, aren't I!" came Reno's defensive reply.  
  
"So what... You know the layout of this whole building, is that it? I don't suppose it ever occurred to you to share that information with Cloud! Maybe we wouldn't have ended up searching for him if you'd...."  
  
"Cloud saw the same damn files I did! He knows as much about this place as I do... which isn't a whole hell of a lot, by the way! It's his own fucking fault he's lost, anyway! If he hadn't..." At that point, Reno had to duck a right hook aimed at his head.  
  
"Tifa!" Yuffie cried, moving toward the two of them.  
  
"His fault? It's YOUR fault he fell through the floor in the first place!"  
  
"My fault? MY fault?!"  
  
"Reno! Guys... Cut it out!" Yuffie interjected.  
  
"Yes, your fault, you sad excuse for a human being! You don't even care that he's missing!"  
  
"Yeah? So why the fuck am I down here looking for the idiot?! And as I recall, it was your *boyfriend* who came at me!"  
  
"Well... you started it!"  
  
"The hell I did!"  
  
"Both of you..." Yuffie began, only to be interupted by Tifa.  
  
"You provoked him!"  
  
"So it's my fault he can't take a little constructive criticism? I suppose you're going to blame me for him wandering off instead of staying put LIKE ANYONE WITH HALF A BRAIN WOULD, as well!"  
  
Tifa lunged, and the world around her seemed to blur. She tackled the Turk, sending them both to the ground, and suddenly they weren't in the cold, sterile laboraty anymore. They were in a place that Tifa still saw in her nightmares. The warning countdown issued loudly from the console behind her, and through the mesh plating, she could see the small crowd that had remained below the Sector Seven pillar only now beginning to scatter, running for their lives.  
  
"You son of a bitch!" she screamed, her hands now at Reno's throat, "You worthless piece of Shinra scum! Shut it down before it's too late!"  
  
The Turk laughed coldly, shaking his head, a sadistic smile upon his lips.  
  
"They're all going to die," he said, sounding very pleased with himself. Tifa's fingers tightened around his throat.  
  
*~*~*~*~*  
  
He hit the ground hard, and though he wasn't taken completely by surprise, he had slightly underestimated her physical strength. What really caught him offguard, however, was fact the moment he hit the floor, he suddenly found that he couldn't move. His gaze flickered briefly toward his side, where Reno now saw thin tendrils of light snaking their way around his wrists. Then he could feel them encirling his legs... his arms... his waist... Tifa had her hands clamped around his neck so tightly now, that his vision was beginning to darken, and when he tried to speak, he couldn't manage so much as a gasp.  
  
His eyes locked on hers, and what he saw set him on the verge of panic. He knew that look all to well. She wasn't going to stop... and there wasn't a damn thing he could do about it at the moment.  
  
He could just barely see Yuffie out of the corner of his eye, and mouthed her name, but couldn't manage the slightest sound. His lungs ached now, as he fought desparately to take a breath, but the pressure of Tifa's fingers on his throat was relentless. He felt her lift his head from the floor, never letting up on her grip, and then slam it back down with a crack that sent spots dancing before his eyes. He needed air... now... Consciousness was fast slipping away. Reno struggled futily against the strange bonds that held him, but with no success.  
  
*~*~*~*~*  
  
She wasn't going to have any luck trying to calm them down. They were both too stubborn. The next thing she knew, Tifa had brought Reno to the floor.  
  
'Great... This is just what we need...' Yuffie thought. She was fairly certain Reno wasn't about to let Tifa win this little battle, and Tifa didn't look like she was going to let up either. She was almost tempted to simply let them have it out so they could both get it out of their systems. Almost... until she realized that Reno wasn't fighting back. It took her a moment to figure out why... but then, she spied the tiny filaments of light that seemed to spring straight up from the floor and wrap themselves around the Turk's limbs, leaving him defenseless.  
  
"TIFA, STOP IT!" Yuffie yelled in alarm, as loud as she could, trying to pry her now-crazed friend's hands away from Reno's throat. But Tifa didn't seem to hear her... In fact, she didn't seem to notice anything at all, except for Reno. She saw Reno's lips move in a silent cry for help.  
  
"Tifa! Please!"  
  
Dear Leviathan, the woman was strong. Tifa's fingers were locked in place, and no amount of effort on Yuffie's could get her to let go. By then, the Turk's eyes had rolled back, and he'd gone positively limp. She knew that if she didn't do something soon, Reno would be gone.  
  
"Sorry, Tifa," Yuffie murmured, moving behind her friend and grabbing her in a choke hold, pulling her back, off of Reno as hard as she dared. Once her own airway was in danger, Tifa's hands immediately let go of the Turk, and clawed frantically at Yuffie's forearm. She heard Reno draw a strangled breath as she and Tifa carreened over backwards.  
  
*~*~*~*~*  
  
She suddenly couldn't breathe. Her vision blurred for a moment, but then everything came sharply into focus again. The flashlight that had been dropped and abandoned on the ground lit the room with a dull light that left amorphous shadows lingering all around her.  
  
"Yuf... Yuffie... Let... go..." Tifa gasped. And within seconds, she was released. Tifa turned in one fluid movement to face the ninja.  
  
"What are you trying to do, Yuffie?!" she demanded.  
  
"Trying to stop you from killing Reno!" the younger woman retorted, scrambling to her feet and storming passed Tifa and over toward the fallen Turk, "Reno?" She was answered with a soft groan that almost immediately turned into a cough.  
  
"Well, don't just stand there... Help me get him out of this stuff!" Yuffie said, glancing over her shoulder at Tifa, who seemed to snap out of her initial shock and slowly approached the two of them.  
  
Reno's eyes were closed, and he was breathing in slow, controlled breaths. Vivid patches of angry red stood out against the pale skin of his neck in a distinctive pattern... but perhaps most disturbing of all was the fact that nearly half of the Turk's body was encased in a translucent, softly glowing crystalline net... which, unless her eyes were paying tricks on her, Tifa could swear was slowly making its way over the rest of him. Yuffie was deftly working at extracting the Turk from his soon-to-be coccoon.  
  
"Yuffie... W-what just happened?" she asked, not sure she wanted to know the answer, taking up a position on Reno's left and trying to pry his arm out from beneath the crystal.  
  
"You tried to fucking strangle me, ya psychopath," Reno answered, his voice raspy, "That's what."  
  
*~*~*~*~*  
  
"Did you hear that?"  
  
"..."  
  
"It sounded like Yuffie..."  
  
"..."  
  
"M-maybe we should go check on them?..."  
  
"... I'm going. You're staying here."  
  
Rude cast one last glance back at Elena before rounding the corner and heading off in the direction that Reno and the others had taken. His penlight wasn't much help in the dark corridor, but at least it was something. A figure suddenly emerged from a doorway up ahead.  
  
"Rude!" Tifa's voice echoed in the empty hallway, "I was just coming to get you! Reno's hurt!"  
  
'Reno's hurt...' The words sparked a brief shudder of fear, which Rude quickly clamped down on. He'd heard them many times before, and he always worried. He worried because in his line of work, "hurt" could mean anything from a minor flesh wound to less than a few minutes to live. His fingers coiled around his gun, and drew the weapon, just in case... she hadn't told him what happened. For all Rude knew, his partner had been attacked.  
  
"This way!" said Tifa, leading him through a long, narrow room lined with tables that held hundreds of different rocks all in labeled trays. Up ahead was a large door that stood partially open. From beyond, came a greenish-blue glow. Rude followed Tifa through the door and found himself in a circular chamber... at the center of which was one of the most beautiful sights he'd ever seen.  
  
It looked like ice, but the room was warm, and within the crystalline depths light danced and swirled. The fountain towered over him, rising at least a couple hundred feet that he could see, branching out all over the room like some massive, translucent tree. Clusters of elongate crystals as big as his arm decorated its base. But Rude didn't have time to be entranced. Tifa was already making her way around toward the other side of the fountain. He followed close behind, and stopped cold at what he saw then.  
  
Reno was on the floor, his eyes closed in gross immitation of peaceful slumber, blood pooling beneath him. Too much blood. Rude knealt beside him and touched his face. His skin was so pale, and so cold...  
  
"Too late..." he said, the words devoid of emotion, though his mind was screamed with sorrow and rage. How was he going to tell Elena? He rested his forehead against his palm, eyes closed, shaking his head in denial. It wasn't possible. Reno spent more time in the hospital than any of them. He couldn't be... be... Reno was always alright in the end.  
  
'But that's what you thought about Tseng, too, wasn't it?' Rude thought. He felt a warm hand squeeze his shoulder comfortingly. He opened his eyes, expecting to see Tifa, and was greeted instead by light so bright that he had to close them again... And then he was falling...  
  
*~*~*~*~*  
  
"You ask too many questions. Give it a rest."  
  
"You have something better to do, Terran?" the female voice chided, almost teasingly.  
  
"No... I'm just sick of listening to him asking the same questions we've been asking ourselves over and over again."  
  
"Maybe he can think of something we couldn't..." the other male replied.  
  
"Hn... Yes, he's had such intelligent things to say up to this point..." the one they'd called Terran scoffed.  
  
"Maybe I'm not an expert, but it's not like you've had any luck!" Cloud finally said in his own defense.  
  
"Ignore him... He's always rude," the woman said.  
  
"... Thought I was Rude."  
  
"Rude?!" Cloud yelped in surprise. He couldn't see the Turk, not that he really expected to.  
  
"..."  
  
"Rude? Is that you?" he prompted.  
  
"... Yeah."  
  
"Oh great... More company," said Terran.  
  
*~*~*~*~*  
  
Author's note: One more chapter... Maybe two... Depending on what other little plot bunnies decide to stop by. Hopefully I didn't confuse anyone, killing off "Reno". I think I did a fairly good job of implying what's going on, but review and let me know... That may get a rewrite. The real Reno's fine... more or less. Don't worry. ;) 


	11. The Heart of the Matter

Every Now and Then by Desha

------

Author's Note: I'm baaaaack... ;)

------

Chapter 11: The Heart of the Matter

"OK, I would really... really... like to know what the hell is going on here," said Reno. His voice was still a bit strained, and his neck was more than a bit bruised. Besides which, his head was throbbing from being slammed against the floor by a very pissed off martial artist. All in all, he was wishing that he'd simply decided to stay in bed that morning. At the rate he was going, he'd be lucky to make it out of here in one piece.

"So would I," Tifa agreed, still shocked at her own uncontrollable rage. The substance that had entrapped the Turk had... for lack of a better word... shattered, much like Rude's materia orb had earlier, the moment she and Yuffie had broken the first few strands to free him.

"Well, it's obvious, isn't it?" the ninja piped up.

Reno and Tifa both stared at Yuffie.

"Obvious!" they chorused, though they didn't seem to notice this time.

"Well, duh... I mean think about it. It's got to be the fountain that's doing it, right? It's messing with our heads, like the log book says. Makin' us see things... and makin' us think they're real. So what was it you two saw?"

"I saw Tifa trying to brutally murder me... That's what I saw!" Reno growled, though with perhaps less emphasis than he'd meant to use, given the recent abuse of his throat.

"I meant earlier, ya dumb Turkey!" Yuffie countered, "Upstairs, with Elena!"

"I..." Reno started, but then paused, "I'd really rather not talk about it."

Yuffie was glaring at him. The Turk looked from Yuffie to Tifa and then back to Yuffie, noting the identical expressions on both faces, and sighed.

"Fine... I saw my mom, OK?"

"So... you attacked Elena because... you thought she was your mother?" Yuffie asked, somewhat perplexed, "Geez, and I thought thought emI/em had issues with my family..."

"It's not like that," Reno muttered, rolling his eyes, "Look... My mother's been dead for years. She died when I was ten. So I figured that whatever that thing was, it was definitely strongnot/strong my mom. That's why I attacked."

"Oh. Er... So what about you, Tifa?" Yuffie asked, sensing that it was a somewhat touchy subject.

"What?"

"What was it you saw?"

"I... uh... saw Reno," she replied.

"Oh, well, that make me feel MUCH better..." the Turk scoffed.

"No, I mean... I saw you in the past. It was like I had gone back in time," she said, adding softly, "To Sector Seven."

Perhaps it was the mimimal lighting in the room, but Tifa could have sworn she saw a flicker of emotion in the Turk's eyes. For a brief moment, he actually looked... vulnerable.

"See! It's just like she says here..." Yuffie squealed, log book in hand, pulling Tifa's thoughts away from her one-time enemy, "Right here... where she says 'At first I thought I was going crazy. Old friends... my sister... my grandfather... things from my childhood... But now Terran sees them, too.' Whatever happened to the research team is happening to us."

"Wonderful," Reno drawled, "That's just wonderful... Too bad we still don't know what the hell emhappened/em to them!"

------

Elena shook her head for the umpteenth time, trying to clear it. The blow to the head had left her dizzy and disoriented, and it was taking most of her concentration just to stay awake, now that Rude was no longer there to keep her talking. Fortunately, training had taken over to some extent, her lessons in first aid and self-preservation coming back to her instinctively. She probably had a concussion... which meant that she had to stay awake... though she couldn't remember emwhy/em exactly she was supposed to stay awake, especially when all she wanted to do was close her eyes for just a quick nap...

'What's taking them so long, I wonder?' she thought to herself.

Rude had been gone too long. He would've come back to tell her what was going on, even if it was something serious... or at least have sent Yuffie or Tifa back to stay with her.

'Injured or not, I'm going to check on them,' she finally decided. She took a deep breath and inched her way up the wall, swaying when she finally got to her feet as the hallway spun before her eyes. Elena closed her eyes for a moment, pressing her thumb and forefinger to the bridge of her nose, until the sensation stopped, and then she began to move forward, keeping one hand on the wall to steady herself.

"Rude?" she called, "Reno? Can you guys hear me?"

She kept moving, slowly so as not to set the floor spinning again, never noticing the wraith-like figure that was swiftly creaping up behind her.

------

"How did you get here?"

"Rude?" Cloud prodded when the Turk didn't answer.

"Don't know. I was following Tifa...," he replied, then paused for a moment, before reluctantly adding "... Reno's dead."

"Wha.. Dead? What do you mean he's dead? What happened! What about Tifa! And Yuffie!"

"... Don't know."

Rude mentally tuned out Cloud's rather loud and drawn out response. He wished he knew. More than anything, he wished he knew. But he had no clue what had happened to Reno... only the memory of the younger man... his friend... his partner... lying motionless in a pool of his own blood, cold and lifeless. It was something he'd hoped he'd never live to see. But worse still was not knowing what had become of Elena, as well as Tifa and Yuffie. Whoever, or whatever, had attacked Reno was still on the loose... and he was stuck here. Wherever "here" was.

"They may yet come here," said a female voice from somewhere within the light, though Rude could not see the source of it, "None of us are really sure how we got here, either. One minute we were there... the next, we were here."

"Oh great... She's getting all philosophical again," a male voice, Terran, muttered.

"It's better than your constant complaining," a second male voice said.

"Now, now... Let's not start that again," the woman said.

"... Who are you?" Rude asked.

"They're the ones we were supposed to find," said Cloud.

"Hnn... My heros... Oh, I'm so terribly greatful that you've found us," came the retort from Terran.

"Don't mind Dr. Farwith... He may be an absolute genius when it comes to physics and chemistry, but Terran never has been what you might call socialable," said the woman's voice.

"Don't you ever shut up?" Farwith replied.

"Don't you ever get tired of being such an ass?" she asked.

Rude only listened to the arguement half-heartedly. He had other things on his mind.

------

The hallway was silent, save for the harsh sound of her own breathing, and her footsteps treading lightly on the floor. Elena paused every now and then to listen for the voices of her companions, hoping to get some sense of where they were. She was certain that she had seen Rude turn this corner before she'd lost sight of him. And indeed, the door to the next room had been left wide open.

Beyond was a long, wide hall, the walls lined with tables containing a vast assortment of rock and crystal samples, along with some decidedly high-tech looking equipment.

"Rude?" she called, "Come on, answer me!"

Her head was still throbbing, and moving around seemed to only make it worse. What she really wanted to do was lie down and sleep... but she had to find Rude and the others first.

"Elena!"

When the female Turk wheeled around to face the source of the voice, much to her relief, she saw Reno's familiar outline standing in the doorway.

"I thought I told you to wait with Rude," Reno said crossly, quickly closing the distance between them.

"I... I did sir. I-I mean we... we were waiting... but Tifa said that you were hurt, and Rude went to check on you... I... I waited as long as I could, but I was worried and..."

"I get the point..." Reno snapped, "You never listen, do you Elena? I tell you to wait, so naturally, you go wondering off on your own..."

"But..." she began, only to be cut off a second time.

"And with some psycho on the loose, no less!" Reno continued, enraged, "How stupid can you get!"

"But I..."

"And don't you EVER shut up!" he demanded, "How you EVER got to be a Turk is beyond me... Always babbling like some annoying little kid. Hell, you couldn't keep a secret if your life depended on it!"

"That's not..." she tried again. His words stung, and not because they were so harsh, but because she'd thought the same things about herself many times over. Somehow, though, hearing it from Reno was ten times worse than her own unconfirmed insecurities.

"You blab details about our missions to AVALANCHE every time we run into them... You completely ruined Rude's surprise party last month... and let us not forget that little incident in Junon on our last visit!"

"But Reno, I... I'm..." She blinked back the tears of humiliation that had suddenly welled up in her eyes.

"Dear Holy, you are so fucking pathetic!" Reno growled at her, "Now I suppose you're gonna start crying. Don't act so damn weak, Elena!"

He reached out, and in one fluid swipe, grabbed her by the wrist and began pulling her along, past the tables and shelves toward the door to the next room.

"R-Reno... Stop it! You're... You're hurting me!" she gasped, trying to wrench her arm from of him, but the senior Turk's grip was unbreakable. In response to her struggles, he merely tightened his grip, causing her to wince in pain, as he dragged her through the doorway.

"You are so emfucking/em worthless, Elena!"

------

"Face it, guys... It's not gonna budge."

Reno glared at the large, securely fastened door in defeat and gave it an annoyed kick. Tifa, as well, ceased in her efforts to open it.

"Well, if Cloud's on the other side of this thing, we're not getting through from this side," he muttered, "Guess we'd better backtrack. There should be a corridor back the way we came that eventually leads to the room we want."

"How can you be so sure about that?" Tifa asked, eyes narrowed.

"Geez... Can we not start this again?" Yuffie interjected.

Tifa snorted in contempt, but let it drop as the trio made their way back through the darkened hallways. Reno took the lead, having comandered Tifa's flashlight, and Yuffie was bringing up the rear. Suddenly, the sounds of a struggle up ahead met their ears, and a voice cried out.

"R-Reno... Stop it! You're... You're hurting me!"

Reno stopped in mid-stride.

"Elena!"

He broke into a flat out run towards the sound of her voice before either Tifa or Yuffie could say anything.

"Did... she just say that emReno/em was hurting her?" Yuffie asked, her question met with a confused nod from Tifa. They stared blankly at one another for another second, before following Reno's lead and racing off after the redhead. Tifa and Yuffie skidded around a corner and nearly ran straight into Reno himself, who stood, poised defensively at the beginning of the corridor. Halfway to the door at the other end, the grey-cloaked figure he had seen upstairs was viciously dragging Elena toward the next room. The blond Turk was fighting back admirably, but she was still dazed from her head injury, and couldn't get loose.

"Reno... Let go! Please!" she cried out, "I'll do better... I promise! I won't be weak... I... I can act like a Turk should act! Please! Please, Reno... I'm not worthless! I'm not! Please... You're hurting me!"

Her words cut through him like knives. If this was anything like what he and Tifa had experienced earlier, whatever she was seeing was undeniably real to her. And apparently what she was seeing was nothing less than he himself... and he was terrifying her. She couldn't really think of him like that, could she? Elena didn't really think that his opinion of her was so low that he would...

Reno shook himself from his thoughts and charged forward, his mag-rod crackling menacingly as he swooped in for the attack.

"Let her go!" he screamed, as electrifed metal made contact with Elena's assailant. The figure screamed in pain and staggered backwards, it's grip on Elena's wrist released, and it tumbled to the floor. It lay there where it fell, whimpering softly, like a wounded animal.

"Elena?" Reno questioned, gathering up his fellow Turk, and looking her in the eyes, noting the tears that had run down her cheeks. She blinked at him through a haze of confusion, and then glanced down at the figure on the floor.

"It... it wasn't you?" she said dazedly, as realization began to dawn. Reno pulled her into a tight embrace, as much to reassure himself that she was alright as to comfort her.

"Elena... 'Course it wasn't me. Come on, 'Lena... You know I could never hurt you. You and Rude... you guys're family," he replied, and kissed her lightly on the forehead.

"Then who..."

She turned her gaze toward Yuffie, who was now crouched over the huddled figure on the floor.

------

Tifa watched the scene unfold as a mere observer. Reno had covered the distance between himself and Elena in record time, and a moment later it was all over. The stranger was down for the count, and Reno had Elena in his arms before Tifa and Yuffie were even certain what was happening. Yuffie sprang forward with Tifa not far behind, just in case the cloaked figure had anything else up its sleeves... but whoever it was, they were stunned senseless for the moment from the jolt of electricity. Tifa reached the scene just in time to hear the word "family" from Reno and see him place a tender kiss on Elena's forehead.

That was almost too much... for a moment, she feared that she was trapped inside another strange non-reality as she had been when she'd nearly throttled Reno to death. Maybe... maybe she really had been wrong about the Turks... Maybe, as Yuffie kept telling her, they weren't the heartless creatures she'd made herself believe that they were.

"Then who..." Elena said, looking toward the figure Yuffie was now crouched beside.

Tifa blinked and refocused her attention. She would have plenty of time to re-evaluate Reno's humanity later. Yuffie was already reaching for the hood of the assailant's cloak.

"Yuffie, wait a second..."

But by the time she spoke, the assailant was unmasked. Tifa half-expected the person to lunge forward and seize the ninja by the throat, but there was no movement, save for the occasionally twitching as the aftershocks of being electrocuted wracked the wraith-like body with random convusions. Now, in the light that spilled into the corridor from the next room, Tifa could see that the stranger was a woman... Her face was gaunt and pale, with protuding cheekbones, her features now slack. Long, unkempt, locks of greying hair fell about her narrow face. Her hands and feet, which protruded from the cloak, were pale from lack of sunlight, and almost skeletal.

"Who is she?" Tifa asked, crouching down beside Yuffie.

"I don't give a crap who she is... All I want to know is what she's done with Rude," Reno growled angrily, electro-rod poised to do some more damage, should it come to that.

------

Something had changed. Cloud could sense it... the light that surrounded him had changed somehow. There was an undercurrent of tension embedded in it... a thrumbing, pulsing sensation of unease, as if it had been suddenly disturbed.

"Oh my..." the female voice whispered.

"What?" asked Cloud, "What's going on?"

"I'm not certain... Terran?"

"Hn... Something's changed," Dr. Farwith replied.

"We had noticed that, hadn't we, Kris?" the second male voice piped up.

"Yes, we had... but what is it that's changed?"

"... Something's missing," Rude ventured,with his usual stoic-born insight. The other voices were silent for a moment. The more Cloud thought about that suggestion, the more he somehow knew it to be true. The strange sense of tangible unease... it was if something had sudddenly been taken out of the mix. Something that Cloud hadn't even realized was even there until it was gone.

"Dr. Umeshi?" the femlae voice again, hypothesizing, "Could she have been here? Could we not have known? Could she have esacped?"

"More likely, assuming she was even here, she's died," Farwith noted. The man's continuous pessimism was beginning to grate on Cloud's nerves.

------

"Hey! Wake the hell up!"

Reno had the mysterious stranger by the collar, and was shaking her rather violently, trying to rouse her.

"Reno! Take it easy!" Yuffie cried, latching onto one of his arms and trying to pull him away. But the Turk was determined to get some answers. No one attacked one of his fellow Turks and got away with it. He wanted to know what was going on, and he wanted to know now. The woman's eye fluttered open, and she looked up at the redhead with no small amount of terror.

"P-p-please... L-let me go..." she wimpered. The shock from the electro-rod seemed to have jarred her back to reality.

"What'd do with them, huh?" Reno asked, nose to nose with her, staring unblinkingly into her eyes.

"Have to... Have to leave. Get away from... from the fountain... Have to... before it draws me back in!" she said. Her voice was hoarse... raspy with disuse. Reno loosened his grip slightly, but didn't release her.

"Fountain... The mako fountain? What do you mean?" Tifa prodded.

"Mako... too much mako. We were studying it... makes you see things... We have to leave, before it's to late! Too late for the others... for my team... but not too late for us!" she replied.

"Dr. Umeshi?" Yuffie gasped. The woman's eyes widened slightly, and she nodded.

"Where are they? Where are the others?" Reno demanded. Damned if he was going anywhere without Rude... and if Strife happened to be hanging out with him when they found him, he could come along, too.

"The fountain... they're in the fountain," Dr. Umeshi said, haltingly, "But... it's too late. Can't go in there... too much mako energy. Never get out... Please... have to leave this place... I don't want to go back there!"

But Reno ignored Umeshi's pleas for a swift retreat.

"Yuffie... You stay here with Elena. Make sure the good doctor doesn't run out on us. Tifa 'n me'll keep looking for Strife and Rude. Be ready to get out of here quick, just in case..." Reno instructed. He rose from his crouched position and glanced at Tifa, "Ready?"

"Let's go," she replied. He'd half expected an argument... half expected her to go off on her own again rather than be stuck alone with him... but he didn't have time to think on it at the moment. Right now, he was only interested in getting Rude, and getting the hell out of Dodge.

The door on the far side of the room stood halfway open, a pale, bluish light seeping out from whatever lay beyond. That was where Dr. Umeshi had been trying to take Elena... so that was where they would have to go to find their missing companions, he was sure of it. Tifa took the lead, her strides confident and sure, and Reno quickened his pace to catch up with her, falling into step beside her. As soon as they reached the door, Reno threw it open wide, stopping short at what he saw. His mouth dropped open slightly and for a moment, he couldn't do anything but stare.

There was no perfectly polished tile here, no metal walls, no scent of unnatural cleanliness that pervaded the rest of the underground laboratory. Crystalline mako rose straight up from the solid rock of the floor. In the center it grew up and outward like a tree, in branches that rose up into the shadows toward an unseen ceiling. Around the base were clusters of elongated crystals, perfectly faceted, their faces smooth and polished. And in some areas were intricate web-like patches... a fine crystalline laticework that looked as delicate as the spider's webs it resembled. Everything glowed with a soft, inviting light... a mixture of colors that was entrancing... almost hypnotic. The light pulsed and thrumbed as if it were alive.

Reno took a tentative step forward. He wanted to touch it. He wanted to feel it. He wanted to be a part of it... and as that realization registered in his mind, his shook his head violently to clear it... What the hell was he thinking. He looked over at Tifa, and realized that she was in the same boat. This must have been what the doctor had meant... about how it drew you in. Reno grabbed Tifa by the arm and shook her out of her daze.

"Don't let it get ya! You hear me? We've gotta find Cloud and Rude and get away from this thing!"

Tifa blinked at him, confused for a moment, but then her expression cleared, and she nodded.

"Let's go," she said.

They made their way closer to the massive structure in the center of the room. It was no small feat to remain focused on the task at hand. As the rounded the structure and the far side came into view, Tifa gasped.

"Dear Holy..." Reno said under his breath.

They were there. Cloud... Rude... and three others, whom Reno suspected were the other scientists. Each of them was entombed in their own mako caccoon. The mako around the thre scientist was thick... solid. The mako around Cloud and Rude was the delicate web-like strands, like the ones that had pinned Reno to the floor when Tifa had attacked him. Reno didn't hesitate a moment longer. He moved toward Rude, intent on freeing him. Tifa did the same.

"Cloud!" Tifa yelled, as she tore at the crystal mesh, shattering strands with her bare hand. But it wasn't going as well as she'd hoped... the strands grew back almost as quickly as she could break through them. Reno, on the other hand, was having better luck, using the flashlight to bash his way through to his partner, and yanking Rude's arm free. As soon as he managed that, he grabbed on and pulled, hauling the other Turk free with sheer brute force. Rude tumbled to the floor at his feet.

"Here!" he said, tossing the flashlight to Tifa before lifting a very dazed and confused Rude to his feet and supporting him, "Hurry the hell up! Get him out and let's go!"

"What about the scientists!" Tifa replied, as she renewed her assault on the crystal, "We can't just leave them!"

"Aw, come ON!" Reno muttered, "You've gotta be kidding..."

"We can't leave them!" Tifa said firmly. Her eyes narrowing at the Turk.

"Fuck," Reno said simply, "Keep working on him... I'll be back!" And with that, he guided Rude back towards the door.

------

"Aw, come ON!" Reno muttered, "You've gotta be kidding..."

It was just the response she'd expect from a Turk. Cover your own ass... don't worry about anyone else.

"We can't leave them!" Tifa said firmly. Her eyes narrowing at the Turk. When it came right down to it, Reno didn't give a damn about anyone but himself, just as she'd alway thought.

But then he surprised her yet again.

"Fuck... Keep working on him... I'll be back!"

She had fully expected him to simply walk out on her. And she would have been glad to see the bastard go. She didn't want his help. She didn't need his help.

No... she had to admit, that wasn't true. She DID need his help. She didn't want to leave those poor people trapped in there, but she had no way of freeing them. They were completely encased. It was taking all she had, just to break Cloud free of his crystalline prison... and the haze that had clouded her mind from the moment she'd drawn too near the fountain was fast becoming more and more difficult to focus through. She couldn't stay here much longer. Cloud fell loose from the mako, and Tifa pulled him to his feet. He was out of it completely, and though he tried to stand, his legs quickly gave out beneath him. Tifa, gave up on the notion of him walking out of here on his own power, and instead did the only thing she could do... she grabbed him by the wrists and started dragging him toward the exit.

Between the dead weight of Cloud's limp body, and her own growing disorientation, getting him out was easier said than done. Several times she stumbled. And then she fell altogether.

"Why are you fighting it, Tifa?" a voice asked. Tifa turned her eyes toward the source.

"P...Papa?"

Her hands slipped away from Cloud's wrists, and she stood up, never taking her gaze off the figure that now inexplicably stood before her.

"Papa? Is that you?"

"Of course, it's me, Tifa. Why don't you stay? You could be so much happier here. We can go climbing on Mt. Nibel... just like we used to. Stay with me, Tifa..." the apparation urged.

"But... I, I can't... I have to..." and there she paused. What was it that she had to do? It was something important... She looked down at the ground, but there was nothing there. She was sure there had been something there a moment ago. Something very important to her.

"Stay, Tifa... Stay here with us," a new voice called. Tifa looked up again, and saw another presence.

"Mama?" she gasped.

"Tifa..."

She took a step toward her parents. And then another. And another...

"Tifa!"

A strong hand gripped her by the arm and pulled her back. She shook it off, but a moment later, someone grabbed her by both arms, and roughly dragged her backwards.

"Tifa, snap out of it!"

The apparations vanished right before her eyes, as recognition dawned. She turned around, and came face to face with Reno, who was staring at her with an expression of concern.

"Thanks," she said grudgingly. Reno nodded in acknowledgement.

"Let's get him out of here," he said, grabbing Cloud under the arms and dragging him towards the door and out into the adjoining room. He motioned Tifa to close the door behind them, and she did so.

"The doc says that the door's made of solid mithril... blocks some of the effects of the fountain," he explained, as he dumped Cloud next to Rude. Rude seemed to have recovered a bit, and was now sitting up, looking quite a bit more alert than he had after Reno'd pulled him out of the fountain.

"We still have to get the others out," Tifa insisted.

"Others?" Yuffie said, looking up, "You mean the other scientists are in there, too?"

"Forget it... every time we go in, we risk not coming back out. I say we cut our loses and run," said Reno.

"You bastard," Tifa hissed, "How can you even think of leaving them there? Those are living people! Or dont you even care?"

"I DO FUCKING CARE!" Reno yelled back, finally reaching his limit, "You think don't have any feelings just cuz I'm a Turk? You think I do what I do and it doesn't come back to haunt me sometimes? I got news for ya! I do, and it does... I don't like leaving them behind anymore than you do, but the fact is we don't know if CAN get them out. Hell, we dont even know if they're even still alive!"

Tifa was momentarily taken aback. She didn't have any response to that at all. For a moment, she considered the possibility that he was just trying to worm his way out of going back in for the scientists... but there had been honesty in his voice. It was a trait she'd come to recognize over the years, and she couldn't deny that he was being absolutely serious. She also couldn't deny the fact that he could very well be right... they didn't know if those people in there were dead or alive. But Rude, quite unexpectedly solved that dilemma for them.

------

"... They're alive," Rude said, breaking the tense silence that had fallen. Reno looked over at him.

"You sure about that?"

"Fuck," Reno sighed. For a moment he didn't say anything.

"Alright, so how do we go about gettin' them out of there?" he finally asked, in a somewhat defeated tone.

"Very delicate, mako..." Dr. Umeshi said, glacing nervously toward the exit, obviously wishing that they would hurry up and decide to leave, "Easy to shatter if you apply enough force in the right spot... Easy to shatter if you strike at the core."

"Yeah?" Reno said, curiosity peaked, "And just how do we find this 'core'?"

An idea was forming in his head. All three of the Turks carried firearms. If that wasn't enough "force" they were out of luck. It was worth a try at any rate.

"Easy... Feed it," Dr. Umeshi replied. Reno rolled his eyes. Wonderful... the doc was going nutty on them.

"Riiiight... I think I've got a candy bar in my pocket. Think that'll work?" he muttered, his voice heavy with sarcasm. Yuffie suddenly smacked him across the back of the head.

"No, you idiot... FEED it. Feed it more mako... just like Rude did when he tried to cast that Cure spell. I'll bet that the energy from the materia went straight to the core of the fountain!"

------

End of Chapter 11

Author's Note: See? This story's not dead... it's just sleeping. I beg the forgiveness of all the people I've left hanging. I was suffering horrible writer's block for a horribly long time, but I am going to finish this story if it kills me. 


	12. A Friend in Need

Every Now and Then by Desha

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Author's Note: Ha! Chapter 12! We're almost there...

-----

Chapter 12: A Friend in Need

"No, you idiot... FEED it. Feed it more mako... just like Rude did when he tried to cast that Cure spell. I'll bet that the energy from the materia went straight to the core of the fountain!"

Now why the hell didn't he think of that. Reno glanced over at Rude, who nodded in agreement.

"Alright... we'll give it a try," Reno said at last, "Yo, 'Lena... you up for a little target practice?"

Truthfully, Elena still looked a little woozy from her earlier head injury, but she nodded, unholsted her weapon, and checked the clip, then climbed shakily to her feet. Rude did the some... though not quite so shakily. Reno followed suit, and turned to Tifa and Yuffie.

"We'll take care of the fountain. The two of you'll have to help haul 'em out," he instructed. He looked over at Dr. Umeshi, fixing her with a glare, "And don't YOU go anywhere until we come back..."

Cloud was beginning to come around by this point, but only just. He wasn't going to be much help for awhile.

"Yo, Spike," Reno said, grinning, "Don't get yourself lost again... I ain't chasin' you down a second time."

"Wha...?" Cloud looked at the Turk dazedly.

"Tch... Nevermind." Reno said, rolling his eyes, "Let's just get this over with."

-----

The mako fountain loomed before them, beautiful and sinister at the same time. The three Turks stood ready, weapons drawn, and Tifa and Yuffie were prepared to grab the entrapped scientists and run.

"Alright, Yuffie... You're up," said Reno. Yuffie held up a materia sphere and hesitated.

"What a waste of a perfectly good piece of materia," she sighed.

"Would you just do it already?"

"Yeah, yeah... don't get your panties in a bunch, Turk-boy."

She cast the spell, and just as before, the materia orb shattered in her hand, a ribbon of pure mako energy rising up, swirling this way and that, before being drawn straight toward the fountain.

"There!" said Reno as the stream of energy began to merge with the solid mako, "Hit it there!"

Shots rang out, and high above them, part of the tree-like formation shattered into dust. The Turks kept firing, none of them sure just how much the fountain could take before it loosened it's grip on the people trapped inside. Suddenly, above the sound of the gunhots, Reno heard a new sound.

"Hold it!" he shouted, and the firing ceased. Now they all heard it... a quiet cracking noise that was quickly growing louder. Reno stared at the mako fountain, watching as a huge piece of it broke away and came crashing to the floor. Then another section brok off, and another. The entire base was beginning to crack.

"Uh oh..." he said, and swore under his breath. The whole thing was coming down, "Everybody get back!"

Rude and Elena backed up, and Tifa and Yuffie followed suit, flattening themselves against the wall. All around them, mako crystal rained down, shattering like glass on the floor, ribbons of light rising from the decimation as the mako energy was freed from it's solid state. And then Reno realized something else... the room was beginning to shake... and he had a sneaking suspicion that it wasn't just from the impact of the falling materia.

"If we're gonna get 'em, it's gotta be now!" Reno shouted. Tifa nodded, and she and Yuffie charged through the chaos, Reno not far behind. Shards of materia rained down on them, mostly harmless, though Reno took a few solid hits from the larger chunks. They rounded the base of the fountain, and found the three scientists just where they'd left them... but now their mako prisons had cracked and partially collapsed. Yuffie reached them first and grabbed hold of the young woman among them, dragging her from the fountain and immediately heading for the door. The other two were still somewhat embedded in the crystal, and it took the effort of Reno and Tifa both to work them free.

Suddenly, the ground lurched, sending them both to their knees on the stone floor.

"That can't be a good thing," Reno commented, and Tifa had to agree with him for once, "Move it, or lose it!"

-----

The ground shook violently, as Yuffie reached the door. Rude caught hold of the ninja, preventing her from falling, and then took he burden from her, slinging the scientist neatly over his shoulder, and motioning for Yuffie to get moving.

"Reno, hurry up!" Elena shouted.

"Fuck you, 'Lena, I'm hurrying as fast as I can!" the redhead yelled back, emerging from around the base of the fountain. Tifa wasn't far behind. Reno reached the door first, passing the second scientist off to Elena, who dragged him out the door and into the next room. The energy released from the shattered materia was beginning to fill the space once occupied by the solid mako. It moved about like a living entity in streams of ever-changing light. Reno had never seen anythign quite like it. The ground lurched again, more violently this time, and a huge crack began to open up in the floor, steam reeking of sulphur belching forth from its depths.

"Oh... shit..." Reno muttered, suddenly recalling that they were 200 feet underground... right on top of an active volcano. To make matters worse, the crack was starting to widen. Reno, against his natural instinct for self-preservation, took off at a run toward Tifa, who was struggling to keep her balance and pull the third scientist to safety against the now constantly trembling rock below.

"Gotta move a little faster," he said, as he grabbed the man Tifa'd been dragging, and took half his weight to help carry him. Tifa and Reno ran for the door as quickly as they could, now walking straight through the accumulating mako engery that swirled it's way around the room. If they didn't end up with mako poisoning from this, Reno mused, it would be a miracle. And indeed, he himself was beginning to feel more than a little spacy. He wondered if it was affecting Tifa as well.

They reached the door, and threw themselves through it.

"Gotta get out of here," Reno informed the others, "I don't think the volcano's too happy about us destroying that fountain. As if in response, the ground shuddered again, sending the equipment that still remained on the tables carreening to the floor.

"... We noticed," Rude replied. He was already shouldering one scientist and helping Elena support the other. Dr. Umeshi was heading for the exit.

"Hurry... have to hurry," she intoned, in a panicky voice, "Have to get off the island..."

"Well, you heard the doc! Let's go!" Reno yelled. He hoisted the third scientist fully onto his shoulder... awkwardly, given that the man was quite a bit larger than he was himself, but he'd manage. Tifa and Yuffie pulled Cloud to his feet. The former Soldier was still dazed, but he'd come around enough to know that staying where he was would have been a bad idea.

"This way... this way," Umeshi called. She was already halfway down the next corridor, and it was all that the rest of the group could do to keep up with the wraith-like woman. She led them away from the way they'd come in, away from the elevator shaft, and Reno hoped that she knew what she was doing. Granted, they'd never make it up the shaft with all the extra weight they were carrying anyway, but if worst came to worse, they could always cut their losses and leave the dead weight behind. Instead, they were headed deeper into the reseach center, back towards the door that Tifa, Reno, and Yuffie had come across earlier. The one that they hadn't been able to open.

-----

Out, out, out... She had to get out. She was free and she had to get out! It had been so long... so very long... since her mind was her own, since she knew who she was. It was like awakening from a nightmare... relief at being free, lingering fear at remembering what had happened.

Things she hadn't even realized she'd forgotten were coming back to her now, pouring into her consciousness from the deep recesses of her memory. She understood where she had gone wrong now, and she knew what was going to happen now that the fountain's matrix had been shattered. It was the fountain that kept this island from volcanic catastrope. With it gone, everything was out of balance, and soon it would fall ireversably over the edge.

'Hallway... left... right... left again... door. Unlock it... with the code. 1-1-6-3-9,' the memories were returning with a vengence now. The door slide open revealing an elevator that she knew would still work. It was an emergency exit of sort, powered by the natural hydrothermal energy of the island.

"Hurry, hurry!" she called to the others. Oh how she wished they would move faster... she thought about leaving them... but they had saved her. They were the ones who had freed her. She couldn't bring herself to leave them to die, no matter how much she wanted to get out.

-----

The ride to the top floor was not a pleasent one. Deep below, they could feel the rumblings of the volcano stirring to life. Inside the cramped elevator, the lights flickered every now and then and the car shook with each increasingly violent earth tremor. Tifa clung tightly to Cloud, keeping him upright. He was more lucid now, and seemed to have a general understanding of what was going on, but apparently being in the fountain so long had sapped much of his strength. The three scientists were worse off still, having not even regained consciousness yet.

She glaced over at the Turks, who had drawn themselves into a corner for the ride up. And for the first time, she REALLY looked at them. Reno, she noted, looked worried... an odd contrast to his usual smug, over-confident facade. Rude, his sunglasses firmly back in place now that lack of lighting was no longer an encumberance, was inscurtable as ever. Elena looked like she'd rather be just about anywhere than here. They looked so... human.

That thought surprised her. She'd always thought of them as being cold, inhuman monsters, no better than Sephiroth, but she was slowly beginning to come to terms with the fact that she was simlpy holding on to prejudices born of an old injury that was long overdue to be forgiven. Reno caught her eye, and realized she'd be staring. He looked at her quizically, but she shook her head and turned her gaze back to Cloud and Yuffie. 'One step at a time,' she thought to herself, 'First let's get out of here.'

The elevator reached it's destination after what seemed like an eternity. The doors slid open, and the party made their way out into the dingy little building that rested on top of the laboratory below.

"Oh no!" Yuffie suddenly cried, "Kaji!"

"Oh for the love of Shiva," Reno muttered, "Yuffie, forget the damn lizard, already!"

"But he's just a baby!" Yuffie persisted.

"Yuffie, we can't go back for him," Tifa replied, "There's just no time!"

Reno nodded in agreement, and Yuffie gave the elevator one final glance. Tifa knew just how she must feel... but there really was nothing they could do for the little dragon if it was still down below in the corridor, where they'd left it before beginning their descent down the elevator shaft. By now, the entire island seemed to be shaking, and the party quickly made it's way outdoors, tossed around carelessly by the shifting ground as they moved.

When they emerged, the site that greeted them was bleak. The huge mountain was very much awake now, plumes of smoke and volcanic gases rising in great columns into the sky. At the very top, Tifa could see the glow of molten rock that was being tossed skyward as well. This wasn't going to be pretty.

From the haze that encircled the volcano, massive figures glided through the air, away from the mountain. As the moved into clearer air, Tifa could see them for what they were. Red dragons... and if the dragons were fleeing their nesting ground...

"That's not good..." Reno commented.

"You're right... it's not," Tifa agreed, "We need to get back to the beach!"

"Great idea... and just how are you gonna accomplish that feat?" Reno asked, some of his bravado returning, "We'd be lucky to manage the climb up the slope on our own... forget about doing it dragging three unconscious people behind us..."

He was right. She hated to admit it, but he was right.

"We... we could... uh..."

Before she could finish fumbling for an answer, a dark shadow slide over the ground, engulfing them for a moment, and a loud, animalistic shriek split the air. Tifa look us just in time to see red, leathery wings pass over them... too close. Far too close. And then, with a thud, it landed directly behind them, and they found themselves mere feet from a red dragon. Not a baby, like Kaji... but a FULL GROWN red dragon, who, unless Tifa was very much mistaken, looked very pissed off.

The dragon's tongue sampled the air, flicking in and out for a moment, and then it turned it's gaze directly on Yuffie and Dr. Umeshi, and roared. Yuffie's eyes widened.

"What... What's going on?" she managed, backing up a step.

"It smells your little pet," Reno said quietly, "I told you that lizard was bad news... It can smell the baby on you. And I think Mommy's very angry..."

-----

Reno shoved the scientist he was carrying over Elena's free shoulder, and took hold of his electro-rod. This was definitely something he'd hoped to avoid. Sure, he'd known it was a risk, the moment he'd learned that the dragons liked to nest here, but that didn't stop him from hoping that he wouldn't have to face down a very large, very angry dragon that would like nothing better than to have him for lunch. What was worse, it was a RED dragon... the second largest, and arguably most intelligent of all the dragon species that inhabited the planet.

The dragon roared again, this time spitting a plume of flame at them that came within inches of searing those closest to it.

"When I tell you to, drop anyone that can't move on their own... and run," said Reno.

"Run! Run where?" Yuffie replied, "There's no cover down here! And what do you think you're gonna do? Take it on by yourself?"

Reno swore softly... he knew she had a point, but really what else was there to do? Get roasted?

"If you've got a better idea, now would be a REALLY good time to mention it," he replied.

The dragon roared a third time... but this time a shrill call of distress answered it. Reno looked in the direction of the sound, and caught sight of a very unexpected addition to the fight.

"Kaji!" Yuffie squealed, forgeting for a moment that the little dragon's very angry mother was danerously close to barbaqueing her, "You're alright!"

The little dragon charged awkwardly, flapping it's wings with as much force as it could muster, but succeeding in raising itself only a few inches off the ground and only for a few yards. Finally, it caught an air current and rose into the air for a longer flight, landing itself neatly between it's mother and the group of humans. The mother nuzzled her baby, mewling softly at it, licking it's head and face. And then it turned it's gaze back on the humans again, growling.

But to Reno's astonishment, baby Kaji turned and scampered toward Yuffie, barking out a harsh cry. The mother dragon paused, and rumbled a response. It took Reno a second to realize that they were talking to each other. Kaji repeated his cry, and the mother seemed to back down.

"Uh... ok, someone wanna tell me what the hell just happened?" asked Reno.

"I... think Kaji just saved us from being lunch," Tifa replied, not taking her eyes off the mother dragon. The relief of not being eaten, however was short-lived, as the volcano gave them a very hard to ignore reminder that they still had one very large problem to deal with. High above them, the eruption was proceeding at full force. Lava poured down the sides, no longer intermittantly as it had been earlier, but in a great wave of molten rock, heads toward them far too quickly.

"Uh oh..." Reno muttered. This was NOT how he'd imagined spending his last moments of life. In the middle of a shootout, maybe... preventing an assassination attempt, sure... but taken out by lava? How ridiulous could you get?

Before he had time to mull such thoughts over in his head, however, something was pushing insistantly at the back of his knees. He looked down, and Kaji was nosing him toward the mother dragon. Yuffie was right behind him.

"What the hell...?" was all he could manage before he was much closer to the large, scaly, red creature than he would have liked. The mother sniffed him suspiciously, and then raised her huge head and opened her jaws. Reno felt his blood run cold... He was going to be eaten after all. But when the jaws closed around his torso, it was with very little pressure, and when they lifted him off the ground and set him down again on the armored back of the winged lizards, he could scarcely believe such a ferocious creature could be so gentle. Yuffie was the next to be lifted onto the creature's back, followed by one of the male scientist. Finally, she scooped the baby into her jaws.

"Uh... is she going to do what I think she's going to do?" asked Reno.

"I... I think she's gonna get us out of here," Yuffie replied. And before Reno could comment farther, with a woosh of the great leathery wings, they rose into the air. Reno clung to the huge, rounded scales for dear life. Dragon travel was not quite as smooth and graceful as it looked from the ground, and dragon backs were definitly NOT made for human riders.

They returned to the ground with a thump that it tossed Reno, and the unconscious scientist right off. He spat out a mouthful of sand, and looked around. They were back on the beach.

"That... was so... COOL!" Yuffie squealed, sliding down onto the beach that now lay before them. The mother dragon set her baby down very carefully on the sand, nuzzled him, and then took to the air again.

"Yeah... 'Cool' is not the word I'd use..." Reno muttered, but Yuffie ignored him, and went over to thank Kaji profusely for saving them all. Reno rolled his eyes, but said nothing more. Much as the little dragon annoyed him, he knew better than to look a gift horse in the mouth.

-----

By the time the mother dragon has succeeded in carting that last or the party to the beach, Reno had managed to round up five of the six ocean-going chocobos that had brought them there in the first place... the sixth was no where to be found, though he'd seen a very ominous cluster of battered blue feathers a ways up the beach. He had a feeling that one of the local dragons had had a nice little snack earlier.

The ground shuddered as Tifa and Cloud slide down from the dragon's back. The chocobos warked in panic and tried to break away.

"Yo, little help here!" Reno yelled, clinging to the reins. Rude and Yuffie quickly came to his aid.

"I think that's our cue to exit," said Yuffie. Reno and Rude were already shoving people onto the chocobos. They would have to double up... and Reno secretly prayed that the chocobos could manage with all the extra weight... it was a long way back to the mainland.

"No kidding," Reno muttered. Suddenly, the mother dragon roared, raising her head skyward. Reno looked up, and the sight that greeted him was not a welcome one. The dragons of the island were fleeing en masse, taking to the skies, and leaving their home as fast as their wings could carry them. Kaji's mother scooped up her baby once again, taking him delicately into her jaws, and bounded into the air.

"Kaji!" Yuffie cried. She sadly watched them go.

"Come on, Yuffie," Tifa shouted, "We've gotta go, too!"

And finally, mountain exploded in a fiery wave of molten rock and ash.

-----

end of chaper 12

Author's Note: With any luck, I'll be able to sum things up in one more chapter. Thanks so much to everyone who's reviewed. Believe me when I say that it was the nagging and the begging that finally prompted me to get off my lazy butt and finish this story. LOL!

Oh, and to hoheehum, who asked if Yuffie gets to keep Kaji in the end... not QUITE what I had planned. But don't worry... I have something just as cute in mind. 


	13. No Rest for the Weary

Every Now and Then by Desha

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Author's Note: And now what you've all been waiting so patiently for... the ending. Please forgive the sappiness... Thanks so much to everyone who has reviewed my story thus far, and feel free to continue to do so! I hope you enjoy the finale. 

----------

Chapter 13: No Rest for the Weary

Tifa helped Cloud onto the back of one of the chocobos, and then climbed up behind him to hold him in place. He was woozy, but his condition had considerably improved. The chocobo stamped it's feet nervously, anxious to get going. It knew that danger was headed their way. Beside them, Yuffie was mounted on one of the birds, along with the added weight of the female scientist she'd pulled from the mako fountain bent double over the chocobo's back. Rude was similarly positioned on his own mount, with the second scientist slung across the bird. Ash was falling on the beach already... it was only a matter of time.

... and just when Tifa thought things couldn't get any worse, Dr. Umeshi took the opportunity to break away from the group and commandere one of the five remaining chocobos for herself. She prodded the bird into a sprint and took off across the grey waters of the ocean.

"Hey! Where the hell do you think you're going?" Reno shouted after her, as he lunged for the reins of the chocobo, but it was too late. She was out of his reach. That left only four chocobos to carry nine people...

"Yo, Rude! Looks like you're riding with an extra passenger," Reno muttered, shoving the last of the scientists over the chocobo's back. They wasn't any time left to argue the point. Reno had planned to put him with Dr. Umeshi, while Elena rode with him... the female Turk had used up what energy she had left rescuing the people trapped by the fountain and getting out of the research station. Her injuries had finally caught up with her, and it was all Reno could do just to keep her from slipping into unconsciousness.

With the last of the passengers loaded, he grabbed her by the arm and all but dragged her to her feet. Pushing her onto the final chocobo and then climbing aboard behind her, he gave the command to set out.

"Let's move it!" he shouted, and the four birds took off at a run, stepping out onto the surface of the ocean. It was only then that Reno dared a glance back at the island. The volcano was smoking wildly. Ash rained from the sky, and even from where the party now was, several dozen meters offshore, it still surrounded them like a grey snowfall.

Suddenly, the chocobo darted hard to the right, and moments later, a massive chunk of fiery rock hit the water directly in it's previous path. It smacked the surface with a mighty splash and sank, but not before the hiss of water vaporizing reached Reno's ears.

"Shit! Everyone, watch out!" he yelled, and he saw Tifa turn back to see what was happening just as three more lava bombs landed nearby. All four of the chocobos panicked, charging off erratically, trying to avoid this new danger. The semi-molten rocks... bigger now... began falling faster, and it was all Reno could do just to keep his chocobo under control. Rude and Yuffie were in the lead now, Tifa not far behind, Reno bringing up the rear.

Reno bent low over the chocobo, shielding Elena with his body... though he doubted that it would do any good if one of those rocks actually scored a direct hit. She was tense, gripping the chocobo desperately.

"Just hang on, 'Lena," Reno said, reassuringly, "We'll be alright..." And he hoped that he was right about that.

Unfortunatly, luck just didn't seem to be with him, lately. Another lava bomb, the biggest one Reno had seen yet, crashed down directly in front of the speeding chocobo. It didn't even have a chance to attempt to get out of the way. The chocobo tumbled head over heals across the surface of the water, taking it's two passengers along with it. Reno let go of the reins, and grabbed hold of Elena. If they were going down, he wasn't about to let them be separated... especially with Elena's lack of swimming ability and dubious hold on consciousness.

He had teased her about not being able to swim before they left... during the trip to the island as well. He was definitly feeling guilty about that now.

After what seemed like an eternity, they hit the water. Reno was only vaguely aware of Elena screaming as he slammed full speed into the ocean's surface on his back, his shoulders striking first, followed by the rest of him. He wasn't sure, but he thought that he actually bounced then, because the next thing he knew, Elena had been ripped from his grasp - and his arm felt as through it had been ripped clean off - and bellyflopped into the water. He thought to pull in a breath a moment too late, and ended up gagging. A sharp pain in his side and chest informed him that he'd probably just re-broken a few ribs. For a moment, he didn't know up from down. His head was still reeling from the crash, and the pain in his right arm was excruciating, but eventually he broke through the surface of the water, coughing and sputtering.

"ELENA!" he screamed. Where had she gone? How far had she been thrown from him? He tried to swim, but a pain so sharp it set spots dancing before his eyes shot up his arm. He gasped in pain, and even that act hurt as his lungs expanded against fractured ribs. Reno spared a moment's glance at his arm, and noted gravely that the bone had snapped and pierced through the skin, it's splintered ends protruding by at least an inch. To make matters worse, it was bleeding badly.

----------

Tifa was concentrating on avoiding the lava bombs that were falling furiously around her. Rude and Yuffie were ahead of her. Suddenly, she heard the chocobo behind her cry out in distress, and she turned back just in time to see Reno and Elena launched into the air as the bird tumbled. Cloud turned back to look as well. Reno hit the water first, and skimmed across the surface like a skipping stone. She saw him lose his grip on Elena and then slam face first into the water. By now, Tifa had pulled the chocobo to a stop, and with some effort was urging him to turn back. The chocobo the two Turks had been mounted on was sinking lifelessly into the depths.

"Tifa, are you crazy?" Cloud shouted, realizing what whe was doing.

"They'll both be killed if we don't help them!"

Elena hit the water then, and resurfaced quickly. But Reno was now nowhere in sight. Tifa was torn between two options... on one hand, she could see Elena, and could reach her her easily. On the other, she knew approximately where Reno had gone down, and he was the closer of the two. He hadn't resurfaced yet, and if he was injured he could easily drown.

'I can't believe I'm actually risking my life to help that Turk,' she thought as she gave the chocobo a sharp kick and headed toward where Reno had hit the water.

As she neared the spot, the red-head surfaced.

"ELENA!"

The cry was panicked, and tinged with pain.

"Reno!" Tifa yelled, as another mass of molten rock came down, dangerously close to the Turk.

"Where's Elena?" he yelled back at her, through teeth gritted in pain.

"She's alright! She didn't landed a ways off! Reno, give me you hand," she said, offering her own to him.

"Come back for me! Go get Elena!" Reno insisted.

"Reno, will you just..."

"She can't swim!" he nearly screamed, eyes locking on Tifa's, pleading with her to rescue the other Turk. Tifa's head snapped up and turned toward the spot where she'd seen Elena only a moment ago... just in time to catch the briefest glimpse of a hand disappearing below the water. She didn't spend any more time arguing with Reno.

----------

As the chocobo sped toward Elena, Cloud took the reins from Tifa.

"If we're gonna save those two, we'd better do it fast," he said in resignation. The volcano wasn't cutting them any slack, and to stop moving would be like painting a target on their backs. Tifa nodded and prepared to jump as soon as they were close enough. With luck, she could grab Elena, bring her back up, and get her onto the chocobo before anything else could go wrong.

She steadied herself as the chocobo dodged another fireball, and then leapt, submerging herself in the cold ocean waters. She resurfaced and took a breath before plunging downward again. Cloud watched as she became no more than a shadow below the waves. He urged the chocobo to circle the area, not wanting to stay still for too long. A glance back revealed Yuffie and Rude, streaking toward Reno.

Cloud didn't know what had happened to bring about so great a change in Tifa's attitude toward the Turks. Had it been him, he honestly couldn't say for certain whether or not he would have turned back to help them. After all the damage they'd caused... all the lives they'd destroyed... perhaps this was what they deserved. But Tifa didn't seem to think so... and now wasn't the time to discuss such matters anyway.

Suddenly, Tifa resurfaced, dragging with her the limp form of one very fortunate Turk. Cloud steered the chocobo toward the two women, reaching down to hoist them onto the its back.

----------

Between the two of them, Yuffie and Rude managed to pull Reno from the water, settling him on the chocobo behind Yuffie. One look at him told Rude that his fellow Turk was in bad shape. Every breathe seemed to be an effort for him and the pain of the broken arm and the blood loss were quickly sending him into shock. His face had gone pale, and he was leaning heavily against Yuffie's back, his eyes closed tight.

Without warning, a blur of cyan streaked past.

"Move it!" Cloud shouted without a backwards glance. Rude caught a brief glimpse of Elena sandwiched between the other two riders as they sped off.

"... Better hold on tight," Rude cautioned. Reno managed a nod, and wrapped his good arm around Yuffie's waist. The two chocobos took off at a sprint, glad to be finally moving away from the danger of the island again. In the distance Rude could hear the sounds of more explosive eruptions, and he dared a look back. The island had been reduced to almost nothing. The volcano had effectively blown itself apart. Steam and smoke issued from the horizon, the only marker that there had once been any island at all.

The imminent danger, quite literally, behind them, Rude allowed his thoughts to return to his fellow Turks. He didn't know if Elena had been seriously injured... but he had seen first hand the condition Reno was in. Rude thought back to the moment when he'd thought he'd seen Reno lying dead on the island. He understood now that it had only been an illusion... the power of the fountain playing tricks with his mind... but it would still haunt him for some time, he was sure. And now he faced the very real possibility of losing Reno again, and perhaps Elena right along with him.

What would he ever do if that happened? They were the only people left in the world who cared about him at all. They were among the priveleged few who could honestly say they understood him. They were his family.

----------

"Reno?" Yuffie prodded. The Turk's grip on her had loosened. She'd had to grab hold of his arm just to keep him from slipping off, "... Come on, Turkey... don't die on me now..."

The tightness in her throat made the words sound choked.

"Please..." she whispered. Things were not looking good. Even with Reno's head resting limply on her shoulder, she could barely hear him breathing. He was getting worse. If they didn't get him some help soon... well, she really didn't want to think about it. The mainland was in sight now, but even so, New Midgar was still so far away. And the hospital in the half-rebuilt town wasn't exactly state of the art as of yet.

Rude was riding beside her, looking over at Reno. Even with his eyes hidden by his sunglasses, Yuffie could tell he was concerned... and getting moreso by the minute. Cloud and Tifa were several lengths ahead of them, and Yuffie wondered how Elena had fared...

When the chocobo's feet finally touched land, it was only a small relief.

----------

Their frantic arrival in New Midgar was greeted by a sea of refugees, who all stopped in their activities to see what was going on, or raced to get out of the way of the incoming party who didn't seem too keen on slowing down. The medical center was nothing more than a three story building near the center of town. It was usually crowded with the ill and injured of Midgar. As the party came to a halt outside the doors, they were greeted with curiosity, followed by a flurry of activity as the staff who had emerged to see what all of the commotion was about saw that there were injuries that needed tending.

Elena was rushed inside first, having been aboard the lead chocobo, carried away on a stetcher. Rude watched in concern as he realized that she wasn't moving. Reno was next... a doctor in a white lab coat, and a young nurse eased him carefully down from behind Yuffie. Judging by the looks on their faces, he wasn't doing so well. Tifa and Cloud helped Rude with the scientists, as Yuffie ran ahead into the hospital she see what was being done for the two Turks.

----------

Rude was settled in one of the uncomfortable chairs that lined the walls of the hospital's waiting room. He shifted restlessly. Nearly an hour, and no one had bothered to tell him anything. Tifa had gone off with Cloud, when the doctors insisted that he be evaluated for mako poisoning along with the three scientists they'd brought back. They had tried to take Rude as well, but he had firmly refused, insisting that he wouldn't budge until he had news about Reno and Elena. Rude had tolerated Yuffie's endless pacing for as long as he could stand it, but at last had retreated to a less active part of the emergency wing.

Now he sat, more or less alone, save for the young woman at the reception desk, and the nurses who wandered in and out at regular intervals. None of them paid him any mind, and he prefered it that way. He let out a shaky sigh as, for at least the tenth time, his mind drifted to the details of the worse case scenario. Elena, for all her bouncy, perky, occasionally downright annoying, personality, was a better Turk than Rude had ever openly admitted. She'd come a long way since her days as a naive rookie. And now Rude found himself wishing that he'd told her that. And Reno... Reno knew him better than anyone. Most people saw Reno as uncaringly self-absorbed, but Rude knew better. There was a decent person beneath the surface. He just didn't always let it show through... but Reno had been there for him, without hesitation, the times when he most needed a friend.

Rude swallowed the lump in his throat as the what-ifs assailed him again. What if he lost one of them? What if it was both? What if he was left alone? He leaned forward and rested him forehead against his palm. He couldn't start thinking like that... Not right now. The last thing Reno and Elena needed right now was for him to fall apart.

----------

"Yuffie?"

Yuffie stopped in mid-pace and turned to face Tifa.

"Tifa!" she cried, hurrying over to her, "How's Cloud? Everything alright?"

"Yeah, yeah," Tifa replied, with a laugh, "He'll be fine. They're keeping him overnight, though. Probably a good thing, actually. He'll be too stubborn to listen to them and get some rest like they told him, otherwise."

She hesitated a moment, but finally asked the question that was really on her mind.

"Err... What about the Turks?"

Yuffie didn't answer right away. She glanced toward the door Reno and Elena had been carried through, and then back at Tifa.

"Don't know..." she said, "They won't tell me anything. I saw them bringing blood in awhile ago, though. Reno was bleeding pretty bad when we pulled him out of the water. He... He was..."

She stopped abruptly, blinking away the tears that until now she'd managed to keep at bay.

"Hey, come on," Tifa said, putting an arm around the younger woman, "He'll be alright. Reno's harder to kill than a cockroach."

As soon as the words were out of her mouth, she knew that was the wrong thing to say. Yuffie glared at her and turned to stomp away, but Tifa caught her by the arm.

"Wait... Yuffie... I-I didn't mean it like that," said Tifa, "I just meant... I meant he's not gonna give up without a fight, 'kay? Elena, too. They're Turks, after all, right?"

Yuffie sniffled almost inaudibly, and nodded, forcing a smile.

"Hey... uh... speaking of which... Where's Rude?" Tifa asked. She had only just now realized that the most stoic of the trio was missing.

"Over there," Yuffie said, pointing to a smaller room set back from the main area, "I think he got sick of me pacing... and I thought it'd be better to just leave him alone for a bit."

She looked over at the Turk. He was much changed from when she'd last seen him. His usually stoic facade had crumbled, and Tifa couldn't help but feel for him. Tifa nodded to Yuffie, and headed over to talk to the Turk.

----------

So absorbed in his own thoughts, Rude didn't even notice Tifa's approach. A rookie mistake... but one that could hardly be held against him given the circumstances. And so, he was so startled when a hand came to rest on his shoulder that actually jumped slightly. Rude turned and was even more startled to discover who said hand belonged to.

"Hey..." Tifa said, somewhat awkwardly.

"..." Rude nodded silently in acknowledgement. Any other time, a thrill might have run through his entire being at the thought of this woman speaking to him. He'd been infatuated with her for what seemed to him like ages. But right now, his mind was elsewhere.

"Yuffie said that no one's been out to tell you anything yet," she continued. Rude shook his head, not entirely trusting his voice at the moment. Tifa say down beside him.

"They... they mean a lot to you, huh?" she said, deciding to skip the small talk, remembering how direct and to the point Rude always seemed to be.

"... Yeah," Rude whispered.

"Wanna talk about it?" she asked. She didn't know what made her ask, but something in her wanted to know... wanted to understand something about the Turks. She wanted to know just how badly she'd misjudged them... and she was forced to grudgingly admit, she HAD misjudged them.

For a long moment, Rude didn't answer. Tifa had just about given up on him, when he finally spoke.

"... It sounds selfish," he said.

"What does?"

"I want them to be alright, because I don't know what I'd do if they're not," he clarified, "... It hurt when we lost Tseng... but we still had each other, and that made it bearable. That's what made it possible for us to keep doing our job, in spite of that hurt, knowing that we all felt exactly the same way. I never had to tell either of them how I felt... they just knew."

Tifa's throat tightened in sympathy. Now that she thought about it... really, who DID they Turks have to turn to besides each other? While the majority of the populace weren't openly hostile toward them, they weren't exactly popular amongst most of the denizens of Midgar. Except perhaps Reno, she ammended to herself, but only because the redhead had a tendancy to flirt with anything in a dress, and he could lay the charm on thick when he wanted to. But by and large, most people merely tolerated their presence. Everyone knew of their involvement in the Sector Seven Incident, as it had come to be called. She couldn't imagine that those who had lost friends and family would be willing to forget it easily. She certainly hadn't been... Reeve was, perhaps, the closest thing they had to a friend outside their tight-knit group, but his time and attention was heavily in demand by his ongoing projects.

"They'll be alright," she said, as comfortingly as she could, "I'm sure they will."

She had the distinct impression that she wasn't really making him feel any better.

"I'll go," she said, quietly, "I mean... if you'd rather be alone, that is..."

"... No," Rude reply, "... I'd... like it if you stayed... Tifa."

There was that note of hesitation again, as he added her name. He'd done it before when she'd thanked him for saving her back on the island. She didn't understand him very well, she realized. One moment, he could be straightforward... the next, unreadable... and the next he seemed almost... well, shy. She was begining to see that Rude was a lot more complex than she really gave him credit for. She decided that the best course of action was to stop pressing him to talk to her and just be there for him. Tifa put an arm around Rude's broad shoulders, and coaxed him to lean against her. She could feel the tension in his body ease slightly as he let his head rest on her shoulder.

She wasn't sure how long they sat there like that. But suddenly, they both found themselves scrambling to their feet as a doctor emerged and said something to Yuffie. By the time they'd covered the distance between them, the doctor had retreated back behind the doors, and Yuffie stood waiting anxiously for them.

"Well?" Tifa asked as they approched.

"Reno's gonna be alright," Yuffie said, with a slight grin, "He lost a lot of blood... broke an arm, and some ribs... one of his ribs punctured a lung while they were treating him... but he's doing ok. He's awake and the doctor said we can go see him if we're quiet and don't stay too long."

"... Elena?" Rude asked, anxiously. Yuffie's smile faltered.

"... She's..." Yuffie began, then paused. Tifa's heart sank. She knew that look. He father had had teh same look on his face the day her mother had died.

"Well, the good news it that most of her injuries are minor..." said Yuffie.

"And the bad news?" Tifa prodded, knowing that it was coming.

"Err... There's swelling from the concussion. And probably falling off the chocobo like she did didn't help much," Yuffie said at last, "She's in a coma... They just don't know."

Tifa glanced up at Rude, but whatever his reaction was, he masked it well. He was as unreadable as ever.

"... Let's go see Reno," he said, softly.

----------

The lights in the room had been turned down low, and the curtains drawn across the windows. For a moment, Tifa was certain the Turk was sound asleep. He lay, his face pale against the stark whiteness of the sheets, on the bed with his eyes closed, breathing in a soft, even rhythm. His unruly hair was splayed out over the pillow. The heart monitor beside the bed beeped steadily. His right arm was encased in a hard plaster cast, and peeking out from beneath the sheet that covered him, Tifa could see the bandages that were wrapped tightly around his chest, binding his ribs to hold them in place while they healed.

By all accounts, he really didn't look as awake as the doctor has told Yuffie he was. But as they approached him, bright green eyes fluttered open, and focused alertly on on Rude.

"Yo, Rude," he said quietly, with some semblance of his usual smirk, "How's it hangin'?"

Rude reached out, and tenderly stroked the hair away from Reno's face.

"Ah, come on," said Reno, "I can't look that bad..."

"... You alright?" asked Rude.

"Me? Sure," Reno replied, with a subdued laugh, "Tch... they got me so drugged up right now, I feel great..."

Reno's gaze shifted to the two women behind the other Turk, as if noticing them for the first time.

"Come to make me feel better, huh, Yuff?" he grinned, "Sorry to say it, but I don't think I'm gonna be much fun in bed for awhile."

"Ugh... In your dreams, pervert. If you weren't already in the hospital, I'd put you there myself, Turk-boy," Yuffie replied, rolling her eyes at him, but she smiled as she said it.

"Like to see ya try," he said, winking at her, "... Heh... Tifa, too, huh? Gotta admit, that's one customer I wasn't expecting."

"Oh please..." Tifa replied, crossing her arms, half insulted by the insinuation... and half impressed that the guy, obviously still in at least some pain, could manage the not-so-subtle, overtly lewd suggestions.

"So..." Reno said, turning suddenly serious, "All joking aside, how's Elena?"

"Come on Rude... don't go all quiet on me," said Reno.

"... She's..." Rude began, but faltered.

"Yo, spill it already," said Reno, levering himself up as much as he could manage on his good arm, "... Is it that bad?"

"Come on, Yuffie," Tifa whispered, "I think we'd better leave them alone for this..."

Yuffie nodded, and she and Tifa slipped out into the hall.

----------

"... It IS bad, isn't it?" Reno said, catching sight of the women departing, "She's not..."

"No..." Rude said quickly, allowing Reno that much relief, at least. Reno could see that it was a struggle to form the words, "She hasn't woken up... She's in a coma."

Reno's face fell, and he leaned back against the pillows.

"But she's gonna be alright, isn't she?" he asked, uncaring that his voice trembled slightly.

"... They don't know."

"Ah man... 'Lena..." he whispered softly, blinking back the tears that had suddenly welled up in his eyes, "It was my fault, wasn't it? If I'd just held onto when we hit the water... I couldn't hold onto her. I tried... but I just couldn't."

Rude brushed away the tear that finally escaped the corner of Reno's eye.

"... Wasn't your fault," he said, "Just bad luck."

----------

It felt like ages before Rude rejoined Tifa and Yuffie. When he finally did, he looked utterly spent.

"Did you tell him?" asked Yuffie. Rude nodded.

"How'd he take it?" Tifa asked.

"... Not well," he replied, "He's asleep now, though."

"We... uh... we saw Elena," ventured Yuffie, "Just for a minute or so. They wouldn't let us stay any longer."

"The doctor said that if the swelling keeps getting worse, they'll have to operate," Tifa added, swallowing the lump in her throat, "They're going to do everything they can for her, Rude..."

----------

In the days that followed, Tifa found herself at the hospital almost as often as Yuffie. Cloud had been released with a clean bill of health, and the three scientists wouldn't be there much longer. Dr. Umeshi had not been seen or heard from since her escape from the island. She could have been dead for all anyone knew. It was no small miracle that ANY of them had made it off the island alive. As for Elena, she'd undergone an operation to relieve the swelling on her brain two days before... She still hadn't regained consciousness.

As she entered his room, Tifa found Reno sitting up in bed, talking animatedly to Rude and Yuffie.

"Like I keep tellin' them, I'm fine," Reno groused, "Why the hell are they keepin' me in here, anyway? I wanna go see 'Lena! It's not like a trip down the hall's gonna kill me..."

Rude was trying to coax him back down against the pillows, but Reno was having none of it.

"Fucking hospitals," he growled.

"Sounds like someone's in a cheerful mood today," Tifa commented. Reno shot her an icy glare, which Tifa, given current circumstances, chose to ignore.

"You'd be in a 'cheerful mood', too, if everyone were trying to keep YOU flat on your back in bed for another week... And will you STOP THAT!" he snapped as Rude tried to ease him back again.

"Gawd... chill out, Reno," Yuffie muttered, shocked by his hostility toward Rude.

"... It's alright. He's always like this when he's in the hospital," Rude assured her, "... Hates 'em."

Reno glowered at him.

"Well that's no reason for him to take it out on you," Tifa declared, eying Reno accusingly, and wondering when she'd become so protective of Rude's feelings. Reno blinked, a bit surprised that Tifa, of all people, was coming to Rude's defense.

"... He knows I don't mean it," Reno replied after a moment, sighing guiltily, before muttering, "Sorry..."

Rude patted his shoulder reassuringly, and Reno finally relented and lay back down. There was a soft knock at the door, and a moment later a doctor poked her head in.

"I thought you might like to know," she said, smiling widly, "You're friend is awake."

Reno jumped out of bed so fast that Rude nearly had to tackle him to prevent him from tearing the IV line out of his arm.

"Hey, now, take it easy!" the doctor admonished, "You're not supposed to be up and around yet."

"If you think I'm staying in here while everyone else goes to see 'Lena, you're outta your mind," Reno declared.

"I didn't say you couldn't go," the doctor replied sternly, "But we're going to do things my way."

She disconnected the IV before Reno could do any serious damage to himself with it, and a nurse wheeled in a wheelchair.

"Oh, you've gotta be kidding..." Reno groaned, rolling his eyes.

----------

Only the threat of being put in restraints, sedated, and left behind in bed convinced Reno to submit to the humiliation of being wheeled around like an invalid. He wasn't sure if it had been an empty threat or not... but in the end, Reno had decided that he didn't really want to take the chance.

Elena's room was bright and cheery, the late morning sun streaming in through the windows. Flowers decorated the table at her bedside, the ones he'd asked Rude to take to her, as well as other bouquets. On the other side of her bed, a nurse was checking blood pressure, heart rate, and any number of other things. In the midst of it all, though, was the one sight Reno had been longing to see. Elena was sitting up, propped up on a stack of pillow, her head wrapped in white guaze. She waved timidly at the sudden onslaught of visitors.

"'Lena!" Reno cried, trying to get up, but Rude had taken a firm hold of his shoulder, anticipating just such an attempt.

"Hey,'Lena," Rude said, a bit more calmly than the redhead currently trying to squirm his way out of the chair, "... We've been worried."

Yuffie and Tifa hung back slightly, watching the reunion.

"Reno... Rude... Oh, I'm so glad you guys are alright," she said, "Err... you ARE alright, aren't you?"

She was looking pointedly at Reno. He had to admit it was a fair question. Between the cast on his arm, the wheelchair, and the fact that three quarters of his torso was covered in tightly wrapped bandages to prevent his ribs from taking too much abuse when he moved, he was probably a pretty sorry sight.

"Tch... 'course I am," Reno replied, "You know me..."

"Unfortunately, I do. That's why I asked..." she said, goading him.

"I ever tell ya you talk too much?" Reno countered, grinning like an idiot.

----------

Author's Note: Ha! I lied... there's an epilogue... 


	14. Epilogue

Every Now and Then by Desha

----------

Author's Note: Really... this is the end. I promise this time. :LOL:

----------

Epilogue

As winter eased into spring in Midgar, it brought with it alternating bouts of sunshine and rain. It was on a day when the weather was pleasent that Tifa found herself humming absently, enjoying the sun, and for the first time in months, having absolutely nothing to do. The progress in Midgar had been remarkable... More than 90 of the city was fully built. The streets were paved, businesses had opened... All in all, it was fast becoming a thriving city. There was still quite a bit of construction going on in some areas, but life had largely returned to normal.

"What? Can't find anything productive to do?" a voice behind her drawled. She turned toward the sound, easily locating the source. Reno's red hair stood out in just about any environment. Rude was with him.

"You're one to talk," she snorted, "You've been doing nothing for weeks."

"Yeah, but I had an excuse," he replied with a grin, "I was nearly killed, remember?"

"So they finally let you out, huh?" Tifa said, strolling over toward the Turks. How Reno could joke so easily about something so serious, she would never understand, but she let it be.

"... They got tired of his whining," Rude interjected, and Reno stuck his tongue out at the other man. Tifa smothered a laugh at the childish response. Reno still looked pale... but that was probably largely due to the fact that he hadn't seen sunlight in more than three weeks, being confined to bed - when they doctors could actually KEEP him in bed, that is - while his injuries healed.

In truth, as Rude had told her earlier that morning, Reno was still supposed to be resting, but he'd gotten so stir-crazy that they'd finally decided to release him on the condition that he took it easy for a good long while. A condition that Rude was strictly enforcing. Elena, too, was up and about, but being a bit more sensible than Reno when it came to her health, she actually WAS taking it easy.

It was strange... It seemed like such a short time ago, Tifa wouldn't have said two words to Reno - or any of the Turks, for that matter - unless she had to. Now she found herself in their company more than she'd ever thought likely. She'd found that Rude, for instance, was a suprisingly insightful and sensative person now that she could finally get him to say more than two words to her. Elena, too, was a nice change of pace, as far as female companions were concerned, especially when Yuffie's natural hyperness began to grate on her nerves. And Reno... well, Reno was just Reno. Though her definition of "Reno" had changed substantially. Much of his arrogance and obnoxious nature, she'd discovered, was really just him being playful. She was quickly learning to only take him seriously when he was actually BEING serious.

"Hey Reno!" Yuffie's voice rang out from across the small park, "Look what I got!"

She was running toward them, carrying a large shoebox.

"If this is more materia, I really don't care," said Reno.

"Oh please... this is WAY better than materia," Yuffie replied. And with that she whipped the lid off the box. A blur of deep red streaked out, launching itself at Reno. The Turk's eyes widened in alarm as whatever it was smacked into his chest, and he fell backwards, more from the surprise than the impact, landing with a grunt on his backside. Two beady little eyes stared up at him and a long forked tongue flicked out, tasting the air around his chest.

"YUFFIE!" Reno growled, "What the HELL is that!"

The little creature hissed at him, revealing a row of tiny but decidedly sharp-looking teeth. Rude and Tifa were trying very hard not to laugh at the expression on his face.

"It's a miniature dragon! His name's Kaji Jr.!" Yuffie replied plucking the critter off of the Turk and petting it, "There, now... it's ok, Kaji. Reno didn't mean to yell at you."

The mini-dragon mewed and nuzzled it's head against her shoulder.

"The hell I didn't," Reno muttered as Rude helped him back up. The dragon's head whipped around and it hissed at him again, "Oh great... this one likes me just as much as it's oversized namesake did..."

"Well maybe if give him a chance to get to know you, he'd stop thinking you're such a big meanie," Yuffie said, grinning at him.

"Right," Reno muttered, dusting off his sleeves.

"Hey, it worked for me, didn't it?" Tifa replied, joining in the teasing. She nudged him gently in the ribs... not hard enough to hurt him, as she knew they were still tender... just enough to make her point.

Reno rolled his eyes dramatically... but he was smiling.

----------

fin 


End file.
